Prokofiev wrote these four pieces as a cocky 18-year-old virtuoso pianist, living at the family home in Sontsovka, Ukraine. He wanted to write music to showcase his considerable keyboard skills and, of course, to etch out an individual style, something he was still very much in the process of evolving. These four pieces, surprisingly, contain many characteristics associated with Prokofiev's mature style, unlike the nearly contemporaneous Piano Sonata No. 1 (1909), which clearly owes debts to both Rachmaninov and Scriabin.

In the Op. 2 Études one finds the motoric and sardonic elements of Prokofiev's musical persona in abundance. The first and last études, marked Allegro and Presto energico, respectively, bustle with brittle energy and make their audience breathless in its passive listening role. The latter piece is quite jazzy in its rhythms, while the former is the more brilliant in color and thematic invention. The middle pair is also quite interesting, No. 2 (Moderato) for its seeming restraint in restraining the ever agitated rippling piano part from erupting into volcanic outbursts, the latter (Andante semplice—Presto) for its immense technical challenges—Evgeny Kissin declared that Liszt had never dreamed of such difficulties. All in all, these are interesting if sometimes over-the-top creations.

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