Scriabin, Alexander (1872-1915)

[Belgrove]

Ohlssons's recital at the WH seems to have revealed that Scriabin is one of those Marmite-like composers. I gravitated quickly towards Scriabin after my introduction to classical music and he has remained a constant ever since. I regard his piano music as something as a pinnacle in that repertoire and do not tire of hearing it. I don't have the same enthusiasm for his orchestral works which sound altogether less original and compelling.

Of the sonata's, Ashkenazy's account was my first full introduction, but I find him a heavy handed and muddy pianist who makes the later works sound congested. The scented fumes and airy vapours conjured by the music seem more like murky damp fogs under his hands. Horowitz is fabulous, but piecemeal in his selections. Hamelin gives the most consistently inspired and mercurial account of the sonatas but fails in the 4th, where Scriabin finally takes wing (and where Ashkenazy is unsurpassed in capturing the Dionysian ecstasy). Sudbin's recital is the most satisfying of those selections he makes. He captures the diaphanous quality of the piano writing and its its quicksilver ability to turn from filigree to toughness within a bar. His just released piano concerto is also very fine (coupled with Medtner's 3rd).

So does Scriabin float or sink your boat?

[Nick Armstrong]

Sudbin's recital is the most satisfying of those selections he makes. He captures the diaphanous quality of the piano writing and its its quicksilver ability to turn from filigree to toughness within a bar. His just released piano concerto is also very fine (coupled with Medtner's 3rd).

One of which is about to be played on R3 as CD Review 'Disc of the week' at about 11:45...

EDIT: the Scriabin, as it turns out. Sounds great.


.

[Pianorak]

So does Scriabin float or sink your boat?

Float - never tire of his piano music. No mention of Sofronitsky?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Float! (More a hovercraft than a boat, in fact!)

Do you know the Gordon Fergus-Thompson recordings for ASV of the complete solo piano Music, Belgrove? AFAIK, available only in separate CDs many at silly prices, but well worth getting if they're ever reissued or if you see them second-hand - greatly underrated.

There's Ogdon, too: can be a bit slap-dash, but with moments that other pianists just don't reach.




And Roberto Szidon, whose recordings I don't know.

[ahinton]

Float! (More a hovercraft than a boat, in fact!)

Do you know the Gordon Fergus-Thompson recordings for ASV of the complete solo piano Music, Belgrove? AFAIK, available only in separate CDs many at silly prices, but well worth getting if they're ever reissued or if you see them second-hand - greatly underrated.

There's Ogdon, too: can be a bit slap-dash, but with moments that other pianists just don't reach.

Indeed - and, since Jonathan Powell is one of the world's leading authorities on the composer and one of the very few pianists ever to have programmed all of the composer's numbered sonatas in a single recital, someone should be banging down his door to get him to record them.

Float, by the way; always has.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... someone should be banging down his door to get him to record them.

So true of practically everything Jonathan Powell does.

[richardfinegold]

Ohlssons's recital at the WH seems to have revealed that Scriabin is one of those Marmite-like composers. I gravitated quickly towards Scriabin after my introduction to classical music and he has remained a constant ever since. I regard his piano music as something as a pinnacle in that repertoire and do not tire of hearing it. I don't have the same enthusiasm for his orchestral works which sound altogether less original and compelling.

Of the sonata's, Ashkenazy's account was my first full introduction, but I find him a heavy handed and muddy pianist who makes the later works sound congested. The scented fumes and airy vapours conjured by the music seem more like murky damp fogs under his hands. Horowitz is fabulous, but piecemeal in his selections. Hamelin gives the most consistently inspired and mercurial account of the sonatas but fails in the 4th, where Scriabin finally takes wing (and where Ashkenazy is unsurpassed in capturing the Dionysian ecstasy). Sudbin's recital is the most satisfying of those selections he makes. He captures the diaphanous quality of the piano writing and its its quicksilver ability to turn from filigree to toughness within a bar. His just released piano concerto is also very fine (coupled with Medtner's 3rd).

So does Scriabin float or sink your boat?

More of a sink. I enjoyed Horowitz recitals, but he would surround his Scriabin with other Composers, which provided welcome contrast. I have discs of Scriabin by Ogdon and Sudbin but don't listen as my attention inevitably wanders. I could not imagine sitting through an entire recital devoted to Scriabin, but in small doses his atmospheric music can be enticing

[Pianorak]

. . . And Roberto Szidon, whose recordings I don't know.

Among my favourites, together with Dmitri Alexeev and Ashkenazy. There is also Yakov Kasman and Maria Lettberg. I really liked the first sonatas by Lettberg but my heart sank listening to some of the Preludes - uninspired and uninspiring. Haven't listened to the rest of her "complete recording" of the solo piano works. Rather dislike Ogdon's Scriabin which seems totally unidiomatic and rushed. Must try and get hold of Gordon F-T - whose recordings of the complete Debussy and Ravel, as well as the two Rachmaninov sonatas are exceptional IMV.

[Beef Oven!]

Float!!!

Scriabin was one of the first composers that I got into, after the usual suspects, when I was developing my taste for classical music just under 30 years ago.

I love the solo piano works and have sonatas by Bernd Glemser on Naxos on 2 CDs and Glenn Gould 3 & 5.

I also like the piano transcriptions of symphony #3, Le Divin Poeme and Le Poeme De L'Extase transcribed for 2 pianos, played by Iluna Prunyi & Sandor Falvai again on Naxos.

While I think his piano works are his greatest achievement, I enjoy his orchestral works and the piano concerto (I have the Demidenko/Lazarev).

[ahinton]

Float!!!

Scriabin was one of the first composers that I got into, after the usual suspects, when I was developing my taste for classical music just under 30 years ago.

I love the solo piano works and have sonatas by Bernd Glemser on Naxos on 2 CDs and Glenn Gould 3 & 5.

I also like the piano transcriptions of symphony #3, Le Divin Poeme and Le Poeme De L'Extase transcribed for 2 pianos, played by Iluna Prunyi & Sandor Falvai again on Naxos.

While I think his piano works are his greatest achievement, I enjoy his orchestral works and the piano concerto (I have the Demidenko/Lazarev).

It should usefully be remembered that Scriabin exerted considerable influence not only on composers of his own day who were not much younger than himself, for example his compatriots Roslavets, Mosolov, Lourié, Stanchinsky, Alexandrov, Ciurlionis and to a lesser extent Stravinsky and Ornstein and also Szymanowski and younger composers again such as Sorabji and even Carter. Yes, his orchestral writing from the first symphony through to Prometheus is for the most part inferior to the best of his piano writing but it's well worth investigating in its own right (although I've always been rather puzzled as to why the choral finale of that first symphony contains some music that sonds almost as though influenced by Elgar, just as the occasional moments in Schönberg's Gurrelieder do!). I don't know what to make of the Nemtin Prefatory Act to Mysterium because, as someone who is by no means a Scriabin scholar, I cannot help but harbour doubts about how much real Scriabin there is in there although, on the other hand, for Ashkenazy to believe in it well enough to conduct its entire 160 minutes, it can surely not be dismissed too easily?...

[Roehre]

It should usefully be remembered that Scriabin exerted considerable influence not only on composers of his own day who were not much younger than himself, for example his compatriots Roslavets, Mosolov, Lourié, Stanchinsky, Alexandrov, Ciurlionis and to a lesser extent Stravinsky and Ornstein and also Szymanowski and younger composers again such as Sorabji and even Carter. Yes, his orchestral writing from the first symphony through to Prometheus is for the most part inferior to the best of his piano writing but it's well worth investigating in its own right (although I've always been rather puzzled as to why the choral finale of that first symphony contains some music that sonds almost as though influenced by Elgar, just as the occasional moments in Schönberg's Gurrelieder do!). I don't know what to make of the Nemtin Prefatory Act to Mysterium because, as someone is is by no means a Scriabin scholar, I cannot help but harbour doubts about how much real Scriabin there is in there although, on the other hand, for Ashkenazy to believe in it well enough to conduct its entire 160 minutes, it can surely not be dismissed too easily?...

float, and I cannot express it better myself than athinton does

[Beef Oven!]

float, and I cannot express it better myself than athinton does

Did you try?

[Nick Armstrong]

By and large I'd say a definite 'float' although at this point I'd say that the earlier music appeals to me far more than the later. I do find the 'splurge' of the big late orchestral pieces overblown, and the rambling later piano works lead me to switch off... was it the 5th sonata that Sudbin gave as an encore in his recent Wigmore recital? Did nothing for me. But I sense they may make sense at some point in the future (like the Fauré Nocturnes did for me, a while back).

But much of the earlier music is great, as much to play as to listen to - I have the Dover edition of all his piano works and many of the earlier Etudes etc (the slower ones!) are possible to play through. And I'd take the piano concerto or the first symphony over the 'Poem of Extasy'...

[ahinton]

Did you try?

He appears not to have done just yet but, in the meantime, he has sought to make me a little slimmer, which is perhaps no bad thing!...

[Belgrove]

In answer to ferney, the Fergus-Thompson disc featuring Sonata 2 was not to my taste, and I went no further in his survey of the works. Perhaps I should sample some again, tastes do change with time.

I note that the Piers Lane discs of Preludes and Etudes have been rereleased on Helios. Does anyone know these? Korobeinikov's recent disc of the complete Etudes (and Sonata 7) on Mirare will take some shifting in my affections.