Prokofiev - Sonata for Cello Solo, Op. 134 (Urtext Edition)

Sergei Prokofiev left his Sonata for Cello Solo unfinished at the time of his death. Composed in 1952, the work survives in pencil autograph and offers a fascinating glimpse into Prokofiev’s late style, his thinking about the cello, and the creative world surrounding his collaborations with Mstislav Rostropovich. Although incomplete, the surviving material is substantial enough to be of real interest to performers, teachers, and scholars.

The autograph contains three versions of the first movement, the most complete of which extends through the exposition and into the development, reaching bar 89. The second movement survives through its first 51 bars, and there is also an 8-bar sketch of another movement. It has been reported that Rostropovich had a personal copy of a fugue movement, but that source has not come to light.

This edition follows the autograph score held at RGALI, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, which graciously provided the manuscript source. By presenting the surviving material directly from the autograph, this edition gives performers and researchers access to one of Prokofiev’s most intriguing unfinished late works.

Well-suited for advanced students, performers, teachers, and scholars, this edition is valuable for study, lessons, lecture-recitals, and exploration of twentieth-century solo cello repertoire. It offers opportunities to examine Prokofiev’s late harmonic language, motivic development, unaccompanied cello writing, and compositional process.

ASTA level: 3.5–4