If I Could Choose Only One Work By...SCRIABIN

[@marks1417]

"sounds like Ravel on acid" - wonderful description of 5th sonata !

[@leestamm3187]

Quite a bit of his stuff sounds like he might have been "on something." Wouldn't have been the first composer, writer or artist to do it, with various and assorted mind expanding substances.

[@composerandreykudryavtsev7690]

​@@leestamm3187 Здравствуйте! Я являюсь специалистом по творчеству и жизни Скрябина, работал в его музее в Москве. Он никогда не употреблял наркотических веществ и считал, что они ему не нужны, говорил, что это "допинг для духовных бездарностей". В свои последние семь лет жизни, когда он создавал наиболее мистическую и космическую музыку, он даже уже редко пил алкогольные напитки. Он говорил, что он и так уже находится в опьянении от своих идей и своего мистического опыта, а в грубом физическом опьянении уже не нуждается.

[@stephaningleby8024]

Scriabin’s loveliest work is his symphony number one. Its gorgeous.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Even if I agreed, that's not the point of this exercise at all.

[@SpaghettiToaster]

Agreed 100%

[@alans3597]

Ver la Flamme is my favorite. Has impeccable structure, great buildup and climax, and also fun and not terribly difficult to play.

[@dvdlpznyc]

Which performance? Kastelsky for me :)

[@alans3597]

@@dvdlpznyc I like Richter and Sofronitsky the most, out of the ones I've heard.

[@Dodecatone]

make sure you sample Laredo and Laul. They play it fast and without restraint; you can really see the "flamme" dancing in your mind.

[@ukdavepianoman]

@@dvdlpznyc Sokolov is very good. The only pianist I've heard who actually plays the "tremolos" as written (with the ties). Creates a sort of "flickering" effect...which is probably what Scriabin intended.

[@dinmamma2604]

Zhukov's recording is impeccable

[@xavierotazu5805]

Scriabin is even more marvelous when you play it. My experience studying a Scriabin work (at the piano) is similar to Bach. You play/study one hand, you study the other one, and when playing both ... OMG! The harmonies in Scriabin are a world apart!

[@ukdavepianoman]

The 10 sonatas perfectly encapsulate Scriabin's evolution which was remarkable in a relatively short life. If I had to choose one sonata it would be the 5th.

[@jackpedder8288]

His musical reputation is very much alive among Jazz people (especially piano Jazz people), in my own experience. Syncopate the two hands (especially in the middle period works) and one does start to stray into Chick Corea territory. The chords and voicings are just so delicious. As long as Chordoholics walk the earth, Scriabin will continue to have his admirers: he provides such sumptuous Chordohol. Hard to argue with all ten sonatas. They tell a fascinating story taken as a set. He is definitely one of the most rewarding composers to go chronologically through the works of, along with Beethoven and Stravinsky. Happy to see him get his episode!

[@falesch]

Agreed. Among most new-music composer/pianists I've had the pleasure to know, he's held as an influence and in whose compositions I hear chords and progressions I associate with Scriabin.

[@dennischiapello3879]

Good choice. I have the impression that Scriabin's piano works are more respected than his orchestral work. The etudes certainly get their play in music conservatories.

[@smileydts]

I have so been waiting for this one.

[@Poeme340]

Agreed! Scriabin’s journey was Vers la Flamme-hurtling, in his short life, toward solipsistic ecstasy.

[@leestamm3187]

Great pick(s). Fine choice of recording, too, though there are some others that also are quite excellent. I'm particularly fond Ashkenazy and Richter in this repertoire.

[@robertjones447]

I must find that Ashkenazy recording. Thanks, Lee!

[@robertjones447]

My choice is Poem of Ecstasy. It is outrageously amazingly stridently lush! It's the apex of neo-Romanticism. Roger Voisin's performance with Munch takes the cake, even though it's all icing.

[@robertjones447]

Ha! You exactly paraphrased what I said before I even said it. 😅

[@ericleiter6179]

Good choice, the sonatas cover everything...I would like to make a case for Balakirev...Islamey...one of those pieces that is also a summation of its artists talent and worth and also a piece that has ruined the hands of many pianists, including Scriabin

[@LaRush62]

I just got through listening to Scriabin's complete output in order from his first piece to his last. I had never heard his music somehow and wanted to see what it all was like. It was fascinating to hear the progression. I have to say, I think I liked his work before he found his mystical chord the most, basically everything through his Symphony #5. The piano works after that point all kinda sound the same to me, with slight differences of course, because they're all based on different inversions of that same chord and it all sounds like he's trying to work out the most sublime version of what he can do with that chord with each piece. They're cool...I think I like the 10th sonata the most from that point on...but it got a little "Alright already!".

[@barryguerrero6480]

While I would not argue against the sonatas, I would also suggest "Prometheus". It's my favorite large scale work by Scriabin.

[@ozoz9582]

Great pick! Have the complete Hamelin, can’t argue - also have Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Szidon, Voskresensky (on Classical Records, my fav), Sofronitzky and Ponti (on Vox, ripe for reissue?)…

[@tom6693]

Certainly agree with you that the Michael Ponti Vox recordings would be a great Ripe for Reissue choice. I learned a lot of repertoire on those cheap LPS, not least the Scriabin Piano Concerto. And though I'd later come to put Ashkenazy & Maazel at the top of my list, I still have a lot of affection for Ponti in this work, if only because I know every twist & turn in it from having played it to death way back when. And I suppose as a first encounter recording, it will always have that special "thrill of revelation" feel to it.

[@loriartx2696]

(Zhukov or Fedorova for me) but I have the pleasure of seeing Hamelin live for first time tonight with Natalie forget/gimeno/toronto/messiaen turangalila

[@Misha.K23040]

Just noticed you haven’t done Kapustin so far. That 4th piano concerto on the Dupree disk you recommended is really something…

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, it is.

[@ozoz9582]

My individual favs: 1. Neuhaus (Profil), 2. Pogorelich (DG), 3. Gould (Sony), 4. Pletnev (Virgin), 5. Richter (Music & Arts), 6. Richter (Melodiya), 7. Richter (Profil), 8. Ashkenazy (London), 9. Horowitz (CBS), 10. Hamelin (Hyperion)

[@shostakovich343]

Very informative. When I get to exploring these sonatas (the art is long) I will keep your list as a guide and see whether I agree.

[@ozoz9582]

@@thanlandia will do

[@joosroets5533]

Yes, Maria Lettberg on Cappriccio bundles all Scriabin's solo piano works on 8 cd's, played with absolute authority, and the sonics are gorgeous. Better than the Hyperion sonics, in my opinion.

[@tom6693]

I seem to be the sole fan here of Garrick Ohlsson's Scriabin sonatas. There are plenty of folks who perform them and perform them well--some firey & unhinged, some dreamy & poetic--but to me Ohlsson covers the gamut with real flair and intelligence. But then I like his playing generally, the bigness and generosity and richness of his sound always appealing.

[@michaelpdawson]

Dave: Scriabin...you know, he gets no love from serious musicologists. Why? Me: Because he was a nut! Dave: First of all, because he was nuts.

[@jacksongrant15]

I don't know if it's cheating to pick a collection, but I would pick op 42 Etudes.

[@annakimborahpa]

1. My guess as to why musicologists distance themselves from Scriabin is that his mature music appeals directly to the senses. It's primary orientation is irrational and feverish, which is not the purview of musicologists/theorists. This sensuous appeal became increasingly pronounced in Scriabin's musical progression over time that Dave finds best exemplified in his piano works, which was the composer's performing/teaching instrument. 2. However, musicologists are able to latch on to the Scriabin-defining 'mystic chord' from the orchestral Poem of Ecstasy, a Dominant 13 (b5) chord whose spelling from the bottom on the keyboard leaves the listener in a trance: C, Gb, Bb, E, A, D. It probably exists somewhere in the pages of his piano works. 3. As mentioned by Senor Santaliz in an earlier comment, Scriabin's Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, a youthful Romantic-style work, has great popular appeal in the style of Tchaikovsky, but it gives absolutely no indication of the unusual direction his later music turned to.

[@happywolfie1980]

Will you choose the complete piano sonatas by MAH as well when you get to Medtner? 😄

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

If...

[@mrhenu]

What about William Byrd? I'm thinking keyboard works as played by Davitt Moroney. They are likely his most innovative works and also my personal favorites.

[@EdwarddeVere1550]

How's about the piano concerto? That gives a far greater overview of Scriabin that includes his orchestral thinking!?!!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No, it doesn't. It's an early, derivative work of little importance (although taken by itself it's certainly attractive enough).

[@happywolfie1980]

Yes it is attractive, but it is easily apparent that it was composed at a very early stage of his compositional life.

[@tom6693]

Dave, you may already have noticed it, but today's NY Times Arts page has a brief review of Makela's Stravinsky disc which, unlike most of the British critics, gives it a scathing assessment that reminded me of your own take. "Dreadful," for starters. "Makela misconceives 'The Rite of Spring' to an almost incomprehensible degree. . . . inert . . . pretty detail piled on pretty detail in the service of no conceivable dramatic purpose . . . no energy, no drive, no gore . . . If anything, 'The Firebird' is worse." From what I've heard, I couldn't agree more.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Well I'll be damned!

[@tom6693]

@@DavesClassicalGuide But just as sure as the sun comes up every morning, Gramophone comes up with their totally opposite assessment of Makela's Stravinsky, placing it on their May 2023 Editor's Choice list, with this comment: "Named last issue as one of our artists shaping music-making for tomorrow, Klaus Makela follows his superb Sibelius set with a riveting Stravinsky double bill." Riveting? That doesn't exactly square with the NYT's "inert, no energy, no drive" view or your "excruciatingly gutless snooze fest" view. And let's not forget it was that "superb Sibelius set" that last year got him on the cover of Gramophone as "the most talked-about conductor of his generation." Talk about hype.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@tom6693 I know lots of this is subjective, but there are audible facts too, and Grammophon is just plain wrong. That description amounts to critical malpractice, and you can make the comparisons to prove it.

[@zdl1965]

Thank goodness John Bell Young is not around to violently disagree with you! Hamelin's cycle is a great one, and I hope that Yevgeny Sudbin will follow up his excellent Fifth Sonata with the full monty!