Completed in December 1933 and published the following year by Ricordi, the Preludio, Aria e Finale (dedicated to Luigi Silva) is therefore a work of Petrassi’s first period, during which, as mentioned, he was primarily focused on reviving past forms and styles using modern linguistic means. Despite its Franckian title, this is very much a neo-Classical work, its idiom terse at times and imbued with modal diatonicism.

The concise Prelude is characterized by its solidity of structure, its incessant rhythmic continuum (broken only by a rarefied, magical “suspension”) and its lean polyphonic lines, yet also features occasional luxuriant moments of tonal warmth. While the demanding cello part explores the entire range of registers, with fragmentary cantabile sections and, in places, vague echoes of Ravel (some of the intense pizzicato playing), the piano here plays a supporting rôle, establishing a closely woven harmonic substrate which stretches as far as the final cathartic bars. A lively cadenza for the cello, anchored in the lower regions and featuring double stopping, leads directly into the Aria, an austere, meditative, strictly measured piece: an almost desolate threnody, yet with moments of drawn-out, typically Italianate lyricism, sustained by powerful chords. Little by little it emerges from the mists and, becoming more animated, reaches a tense, emotional climax in an intensified più che fortissimo, before turning back in on itself again. The prevailing atmosphere is one of pessimistic solipsism, like a meditation reaching out over the abyss, as if mirroring the mysterious accumulation of eternal questions about life (and death). The work ends with an energetic Finale with vibrant octaves in the bass—like sinister warnings—and full of contrapuntal writing which, with Bartókian vehemence, eventually pushes the Sonata towards its unbridled Presto conclusion.