Scriabins Temple

[Cato]

That is some story!

Let me recommend that you try following Scriabin's evolution from the First Piano Sonata onward, and maybe you will hear and understand his development.  The Fourth and Fifth Sonatas especially show that something new is blossoming.

If you have the funds, these performances might tickle your ears better:

[asin]B00007J4SK[/asin]

[asin]B000W4E3OS[/asin]

or Ruth Laredo's famous set.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

or Ruth Laredo's famous set.

+1

[kishnevi]

That is some story!

Let me recommend that you try following Scriabin's evolution from the First Piano Sonata onward, and maybe you will hear and understand his development.  The Fourth and Fifth Sonatas especially show that something new is blossoming.

If you have the funds, these performances might tickle your ears better:

[asin]B00007J4SK[/asin]

A further refinement:  don't bother with Lettberg, but instead get this in addition to the Ponti double CD Cato posted

which contains everything else.

Never heard the Laredo,  but Ponti is to my ears much better than Lettberg.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Never heard the Laredo,  but Ponti is to my ears much better than Lettberg.

Laredo for me is a wonderful "story teller" in this music. All whisper and suggestion. Using an economy of means to get powerful results. She surprises, time and again.

Her approach is the antithesis of the Ashkenazy's and the Ponti's but it does Scriabin proud.

[Wanderer]

For a more modern, angular approach in the late sonatas and superhuman virtuosity throughout (the Fourth Sonata does fly!),  I'm also very fond of Hamelin's set.

[xochitl]

thanks guys. i have much to encounter!

[Cato]

A further refinement:  don't bother with Lettberg, but instead get this in addition to the Ponti double CD Cato posted

which contains everything else.

Never heard the Laredo,  but Ponti is to my ears much better than Lettberg.

Agreed: yet there are many positive things in the approach of Maria Lettberg, and I wanted to offer more than one possibility.  And that set also has a DVD with an interview with her about Scriabin and a multi-media project.

[Cato]

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

...Scriabin: The Complete Works," an 18-CD set on Decca said to be the first of its kind, provides the opportunity to assess his output as a totality. Featuring performances from the label's esteemed catalog and 64 newly recorded tracks, it traces the composer's evolution in the piano and orchestral realms from imitator to innovator. The downside of the compilation's essentially chronological presentation is that there's a lot of dross amid the gold....

(My emphasis above: the reviewer does not think much of the Preludes.)

...Valentina Lisitsa offers nuanced readings of the 36 pieces she recorded for the compilation, but in loud passages she tends to bang. By contrast, Mikhail Pletnev's sole contribution is the Poème in F-sharp minor; his delicate, lilting touch is like a butterfly caressing the keys. Pierre-Laurent Aimard's only contribution is a lucid, technically superb—if chilly—perusal of the "Black Mass" sonata. ...

According to annual repertoire surveys by the League of American Orchestras from 2000 to 2011, Scriabin's symphonic compositions are vastly underplayed compared with those by contemporaries like Debussy, Ravel and Rachmaninoff. (That's unlikely to change in the future, despite the boomlet at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the estimable Riccardo Muti.) Perhaps it's because Scriabin's works need conductors with a strong sense of structure and the ability to convey unfettered passion....

Mr. Ashkenazy also tackles Russian composer Alexander Nemtin's lengthy reconstruction of "Actions Préalable" ("Preparation for the Final Mystery"), based on unnumbered sketches by Scriabin.... "Mysterium" was intended to be a multimedia extravaganza over a period of seven days in a specially constructed cathedral in the Himalayas, with orchestra, large mixed choir, visual effects, dancers, incense, mists and more. At the end, he reportedly believed, the world would end; a nobler race would arise. In its unrealized concept, if not in the variable quality of Nemtin's concoction, nothing better captures the essence of Scriabin's peculiar genius.

See:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/scriabin-the-complete-works-review-1435614322

[pjme]

I recently discovered Indo-German pianist Pervez Mody.
What do you think of his interpretations?

https://www.youtube.com/v/lPpWWIw4k1Y


And if you are in Amsterdam , november 28th:

Markus Stenz and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra take on Scriabin's fantastic "Mysterium" - a work that was completed by Nemtin after Scriabin's sudden death in 1915. Stenz and the orchestra will be joined by the Radio Choir, Alexei Volodin (piano) and Sara Hershokowitz (soprano).

http://www.concertgebouw.nl/concerten/skrjabins-onbereikbare-mysterium

[John Whitmore]

Can somebody help. A concert pianist friend of mine, Norma Fisher, did a BBC broadcast in the 1970s of some Scriabin sonatas.The BBC hasn't kept the tape. Does anybody have a cassette of this? I would very much like to borrow it and copy it for her. Many thanks in advance. John Whitmore

[pjme]

Too bad that I cannot be there:


Radio Filharmonisch Orkest

Groot Omroepkoor

Vlaams Radio Koor

Markus Stenz - dirigent

Alexei Zuev - piano

Marisol Montalvo - sopraan


Programma

Skrjabin / Nemtin - 'Mysterium' (L'acte préable')

https://www.concertgebouw.nl/concerten/skrjabins-onbereikbare-mysterium/28-11-2015/van=2015-11-28

[Cato]

Too bad that I cannot be there:


Radio Filharmonisch Orkest

Groot Omroepkoor

Vlaams Radio Koor

Markus Stenz - dirigent

Alexei Zuev - piano

Marisol Montalvo - sopraan


Programma

Skrjabin / Nemtin - 'Mysterium' (L'acte préable')

https://www.concertgebouw.nl/concerten/skrjabins-onbereikbare-mysterium/28-11-2015/van=2015-11-28

Wow!  Great choice!  I assume they will make this available online at some point?

[pjme]

Yes, I think so. Check out Dutch Radio 4.

I'll try to keep you informed.

Peter

[lescamil]

It will be. All of their Saturday Matinee concerts are recorded and available hours after they happen, and some even end up on YouTube. I'll keep an eye out on all outlets.

[Cato]

A visit to the Scriabin Museum in Moscow is described in an article in today's Wall Street Journal:

...After one dons the required plastic shoe coverings, a creaky, red-carpeted staircase awaits; at the top is a large painting of the composer—the mustache is unmistakable—spiffily dressed in a winged collar and brown tie, with vest and jacket to match. Just another half flight, and you have arrived at the year 1915.

...Scriabin's Bechstein piano occupies the left side of the large living room; it is still actively used. Over the years it has served for recitals by a host of pianists, including Vladimir Horowitz, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Mikhail Pletnev.

Gloves and a top hat are displayed behind glass, and photographs are spread across walls everywhere in the house: a group portrait of his teacher Nikolai Zverev with pupils who include not only Scriabin but Rachmaninoff; family portraits; early music manuscripts and posters. There is a bust of the composer created by sculptor Serafim Sudbinin in 1908, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky. ...

But the attention-getter here is the color organ built by Scriabin's friend, the scientist Alexander Mozer, designed for use in a performance of the composer's mystical orchestral work "Prometheus: The Poem of Fire" (1910). It's a small wooden circle of 12 electric lamps in a spectrum of colors that fits easily on the desk in this music room. "Prometheus" was likely the first music score to include instructions for projecting colors corresponding to the tones being played. ...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-house-that-prometheus-built-1448321201

[lescamil]

Here is Mysterium from earlier today. The piece starts around the 59 minute mark on the recording.

http://www.radio4.nl/ntrzaterdagmatinee/uitzending/321383/ntr-zaterdagmatinee

[Turner]

SCRIABIN: COMPLETE WORKS - DECCA 18 CD BOX

http://www.classicalcdreview.com/scriabinbox.html
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Aug/Scriabin_complete_4788168.htm

A lot of real rarities here, which is the main reason for acquiring the set, plus some decent performances, and some less interesting ones too.

But: I just discovered that CD 4 and CD 10 has been switched in the box set.
So that CD 4 contains the material of CD 10, and vice-versa.
Luckily, it´s all there anyway.

What wonderful music he composed.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Man I need more of his work in my collection, I've mainly stuck to the orchestral works, preludes and etudes but he has so much more awesome piano music!!!!!!!       

If you cave to the Ponti recommendations (and why not; they are obviously well intended and believed-in recommendations), I would urge you also to consider some other interpretations, especially with the Sonatas.
Ponti bangs these works out so mercilessly (on an upright piano, no less!!!), there is little to nothing left of the colors and muted shades that make middle- to late Scriabin piano works so special. If you listen to only one Scriabin sonata to hear how it can be done, make it Lubimov's "Messe Noire". http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/09/dip-your-ears-no-44.html

I consider Håkon Austbø  (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/09/visual-music-musical-vision.html), Pletnev (only very few sonatas available), and Sudbin (http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2007/11/dip-your-ears-no-85.html, ditto) in a class of their own.

[Moonfish]

*bump*

Not too much activity here. I was reading a bit about Rachmaninov and Scriabin and discovered that they pretty much had parallel trajectories in their younger days. Regardless, it made me a bit curious about Scriabin's music - the path of the conventional (following Chopin-like compositions) to the orthodox (the path of mystery - music as transcendence). [BTW how can one resist that line of thinking]. I'm curious about how he was inspired by Chopin!

So - reading the thread - the best way to tackle Scriabin is by selected highlights rather than a chronological approach? Thoughts and recommendations beyond what already has been covered in the thread? After all, a couple of years have passed! 

[Moonfish]

Scriabin in the "news":

Postlude To A Kiss: Scriabin's Raging 'Poem Of Ecstasy'

Hmm, interesting perspective on life..




Btw there was an early thread that focused on Scriabin's symphonies: http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?topic=4649.0