James Ehnes, Wendy Chen - Prokofiev: The two Violin Sonatas and Five Melodies (2000)

The lyrical element is the essence of Prokofiev's nature, whether it be that of the man or of his music […] and it is deliberately that he chooses to turn it to derision, to make it grotesque, to disfigure it. Through all the distortions, dilations, sudden stops and about-faces that the composer subjects them to, his themes and harmonies remain essentially lyrical. So it is that Prokofiev's Soviet works are a battlefield where his lyricism does away with the intruders, one after the other: the classicism that withers it away, the impulsiveness that dashes it, the dramatic impulse that blocks its way. And it is precisely this battle that makes his music gripping through and through.