BaL 2.05.15 - Scriabin: Prometheus (Poem of Fire)

[Pulcinella]

In view of the relative lack on interest in this thread, perhaps this will be an opportunity to become familiar with a work many of us (and I include myself) do not know.

That's certainly why I shall be listening!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

In view of the relative lack on interest in this thread, perhaps this will be an opportunity to become familiar with a work many of us (and I include myself) do not know.

I prefer Prometheus to The Poem of Ecstasy - but neither work is Scriabin at his best IMO. Where Ecstasy gets stuck on one phrase, Prometheus is rather stuck on one chord. And the "Hollywood conclusion" of Prometheus requires an entire mine of salt!

But it's been years since I last heard it, and refreshed ears might hear new things I'd overlooked before. Certainly Scriabin was excited by the work - at the party at Koussevitsky's he played through what he'd written so far and commented on what he was thinking:

Lights! It's a poem of fire! Here the hall has changing colours. Now they glow ... now they turn to tongues of flame. Listen! All this Music is really fire.

You know, there are tempi so slow that no one has ever played before so slowly. Don't you think that Music bewitches time and can stop its ticking? Eternity must stretch from the moment of languor to complete dematerialization.

(I prefer the piano Music messeln. I should also try to remember that the "Hollywood ending" was written twenty years before such things were "invented". Even so ... )

[seabright]

I wonder if the first American recording of the work will get a mention? ... ie: Stokowski and his Philadelphians in 1932. I guess it's not "currently available" but at least you can see the 'Pearl' CD set's cover here, where it and the "Poem of Ecstasy" are 'fillers' to the first 78s of "Gurrelieder" ...

http://www.amazon.com/Gurrelieder-Poem-Ecstasy-Arnold-Schoenberg/dp/B000000WNR

,

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Great stuff so far...


(...but Bill Mival. It's getting ever more Clemmie-like.)

[Bryn]

Oh good. The Muti is among those considered.

[BBMmk2]

Oh good. The Muti is among those considered.

Yes, I am glad about that! That's the comp0lete set I have. Muti is one of the dew conductors that can really "pull off" Scriabin's work. Although I do rather like Argerich/Abbado recording and didn't much care for the Russian mentioned straight after. He seems to like Pierre Boulez though.

PS Argerich/Abbado winners! :)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Abbado, but is the DVD the same performance as the CD?

[Bryn]

Blu-ray just ordered from Switzerland via amazon marketplace.

[Also the big Sony/RCA Abbado box - A bargain at around £1 a disc.]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Abbado, but is the DVD the same performance as the CD?

The concert from which the recording was made was shown on Channel 4 (I kid thee not) in the early-mid '90s. It's from the same set of concerts that the CD recording was made, and if neither Bill nor Andy could tell whether or not it was a different performance ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The concert from which the recording was made was shown on Channel 4 (I kid thee not) in the early-mid '90s. It's from the same set of concerts that the CD recording was made, and if neither Bill nor Andy could tell whether or not it was a different performance ...

Oh, don't you start…

[Pulcinella]

PS Argerich/Abbado winners! :)

Good that you seemed to be able to listen in real time today bbm, and not have to ask who won!
Hurrah for skool hols, eh?

[BBMmk2]

Good that you seemed to be able to listen in real time today bbm, and not have to ask who won!
Hurrah for skool hols, eh?

Haha! It's term time now Pulcie! My music is on bank holiday mode but we have to go back on Monday!

[Pulcinella]

Haha! It's term time now Pulcie! My music is on bank holiday mode but we have to go back on Monday!

Oh, I thought you'd get the long weekend as a mid-term break.

[ardcarp]

Well if you have to work on Monday, I trust you will wear a very red tie, hum the Internationale sotto voce and have your right fist discreetly clenched.

I for one was glad for Bill's [!] tour through Prometheus. It does seem to be one climax after another, and after a while Scriabin's method of achieving them [beware doubles entendres] seems to be endless upward arpeggiated figures and upward shifts in tonality. Mr Mival at one point complained of the inadequacy of de-tumescensce (his words) in one version. I felt, though only based on what I heard today, that in general there was a lack of relaxation of tension throughout the piece. Even in a film score...there surely was a proto-catastrophe movie in Scriabin's head.....you can only reach the heights so often. A man of my age can only wonder at it.

[BBMmk2]

Oh, I thought you'd get the long weekend as a mid-term break.

Not this one in posh skool! :)