Bronfman begins a tour of Prokofiev’s sonatas

Prokofiev began his musical career not just as a composer but also as a formidable piano virtuoso, with a pile driver keyboard technique that found expression in the music he wrote for himself to play.

To hear that music today — the early piano sonatas and the first two concertos — is to get a vivid mental image of Prokofiev’s steely, explosive approach to the keyboard.

In performances of impressive scope and weight, he gave each of these works a respectful and committed airing that made the best possible case for each of them.

Bronfman drew out that combination with enormous skill, tromping his way through the knuckle-busting fast sections of the Third Sonata and giving a full measure of tender eloquence to the affecting slow movement of the Fourth.

The First Sonata, written at 15, came off as even more callow than necessary in Bronfman’s brusque account, but there was ample recompense in the Second Sonata, which is full of signature Prokofiev gestures — ghostly glissandos, extravagantly difficult passagework, tartly dissonant harmonies — all tied together in an exuberantly youthful knot.