Who on earth needs the complete works of Scriabin?
mainOf all the things I never knew I needed, the complete works of Alexander Scriabin come somewhere near the top, along with the collected speeches of Ronald Reagan and the unexpurgated letters of the last three Popes. Scriabin (1872-1915) was a composer of great imagination and very little self-restraint. His short piano pieces, the most effective since Chopin’s, can nail your ear to the wall; his symphonic ramblings make eternity seem short.
Those were my first thoughts when the box landed with 18 CDs, and a massive claim on my time.
But – what do you know? – the music can become hypnotic. If you let it.
The Decca box is my album of the week on sinfinimusic.com. Read the full review here.
Mr & Mrs Scriabin invite us to a picnic lunch. Bring your own boxed set.
It’s not a Mrs.Skryabin. Tatyana Slotzer couldn’t marry A.Skrybin. His wife never gave him a divorce.
I was reading elsewhere that the new Ashkenazy disc includes a nice little piece by Scriabin’s 11 year old son who tragically died shortly afterwards in a boat accident.
That pic is of the dame for whom Skryabin left his missus ‘for the sake of art’.
I can understand feeling that the complete works of Scriabin are not necessary-but this quote is one of the silliest and most inappropriate I’ve read recenlty, or maybe the humor was beyond me.GO
Of all the things I never knew I needed, the complete works of Alexander Scriabin come somewhere near the top, along with the collected speeches of Ronald Reagan and the unexpurgated letters of the last three Popes.
Always new experiences await-yes, the music is hypnotic
It also depends by whom Scriabin is being performed… This Decca box is a discussable minestrone of performing styles… Still, it’s a wonder that such bargain editions are published at the time of the agonizing CD…