Toccata in D minor for Piano Op.11

In
December 1908, the seventeen-year-old Prokofiev gave his début concert at the
St Petersburg Evenings of Contemporary Music. The audience loved his wild,
unbridled fantasy and from then on the composer-pianist made his piano works
not only vehicles for daring harmonic experiments but also conscious attempts
to bedazzle and shock.

The
ferocious Toccata was clearly
designed by the young firebrand to leave audiences stunned by his virtuosity
and to add to his reputation as an enfant
terrible. It was doubtless composed as an encore piece to round off his
increasingly successful recitals, while its publication acted as a challenge to
other pianists. It was unlike anything heard before – manic, driving,
percussive and dissonant, the devil let
loose on the keyboard.