Piano Sonata No. 4 (Weinberg)

The Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor, Op. 56, is a piano sonata in four movements written in 1955 by Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg. The piece was dedicated to Soviet pianist Emil Gilels.

Compositional background
In January 1953, Weinberg had been arrested by Soviet authorities on charges of "Jewish bourgeois nationalism" as part of the Doctors' plot and sentenced to execution. However, the death of Stalin shortly after caused his release and marked the start of an era of renewed creative freedom for the composer, who remained in Moscow.

Style
Weinberg's later piano sonatas, starting with the fourth, mark a departure from the composer's influences in the genre (notably that of Prokofiev and Shostakovich) and a further affirmation of the composer's personal musical style; the fourth sonata is his first truly idiosyncratic sonata. However, influences of the older Soviet composers persist; Weinberg himself notes that "the Shostakovich school has been fundamental for my artistic work."

According to Naxos, the sonata "fuses folk inspiration, rhythmic vivacity and melancholy in a profoundly personal way." Weinberg biographer David Fanning describes the work as "classically balanced" and holding a deeper "expressive range" than previous works, the technical demands on the pianist rising in a parallel manner.

The piece is notable for its motivic unity, with a common Largo theme in E minor thematically linking all four movements together.

Structure
The piece is structured in four movements:
 * I. Allegro, in B minor
 * II. Allegro, in A minor
 * III. Adagio, in Bb major
 * IV. Allegro, in B minor

To an opening disquiet, busy Allegro in sonata form succeeds a dance-like, dissonant movement in 3/4 time. The following contemplative and deeply nostalgic Adagio provides a moment of rest before the final Allegro, featuring another dance-like main theme progressively gaining in intensity and despair. However, the agitation of the movement trails off towards the end of the movement, giving way to a Largo theme previously heard in other movements of the sonata. The piece ends in somber silence, over a Bm pianissimo chord.

Average performance duration is about 26 minutes.