Lead us to the beating heart of Russian music
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
No-one ever built a career on Scriabin. The Russian composer is altogether too quirky, too much a self-declared outsider, to draw a mainstream following. Lions of the piano raided his lesser pieces for encores, but never played a Scriabin concerto or a full recital….
Read on here.
And here.
En francais ici.
In Spanish here.
In The Critic here.
Svjatoslav Richter,among others,gave occasionally all Scriabin recitals.The Warsaw recital from October 27,1972,is definitely worth a listen!!!
As for where he started – and where he ended up – it can truly be said that no other composer travelled such a distance within only 20 years. While some of his piano pieces can be considered to be tonal experiments as opposed to satisfying pieces of music, the man truly broke ground in a most individual and unique way.
I heard Kissin play the Scriabin concerto in New York 10 years ago. (Also was the first time I ever heard the “overplayed” Grieg concerto live, after 40 years of very regular concertgoing.)
Supreme genius, a pianists composer, despite the high quality of the orchestral works.
Vladimir Soronitsky was devoted and best A.Scryabin pianist. The most important composer in his career.
Not only Richter, but Vladimir Ashkenazy gave magnificent all-Scriabin recitals. Ashkenazy’s performance of the Scriabin Concerto, conducted by Lorin Maazel, which I heard nearly 50 years ago, left an indelible impact. Their their recording of it is a “reference” version. Since then, major pianists such as Garrick Ohlsson and Trifonov have championed this beautiful work.
Heard Garrick Ohlsson playing Scryabin sonata#5. Not much clue in this piece. And I don’t attend D.Trifonov recitals anymore.
Does he still go to your recitals?
That is a difficult expression. In Soviet times, the KGB was called the beating heart of the Party.
I don’t know what to make of pianists never playing “…a concerto” of Scriabin. He only composed one, and it surprises me not a little that, notwithstanding the appalling state of music criticism, our reviewer does not know that. And performed/recorded it certainly is — I have that of Solomon with Dobrowen, and there are plenty more. There are surely at least a couple of dozen surverys of the solo piano music. The basis of the review is a familiar trope, which makes for quick and easy writing, but times have changed.
There have been numerous recordings of the Scriabin Concerto. However, it is an immature, Chopinesque work, and while deserving of an occasional airing, it is weak, and remains mostly as a curiosity.
Utter garbage (your comment).
Russian fine pianist Peter Laul just played all Scryabin recital in Moscow.
“Lions of the piano raided his lesser pieces for encores, but never played a Scriabin concerto or a full recital….?”
I recall a certain Vladimir Ashkenazy who played Scriabin’s Piano Concerto many times, played quite a few of his Sonatas in recital, and recorded them all, as well as the Piano Concerto and Prometheus. He also recorded, as a conductor, all of Scriabin’s most important orchestral works.
We Scriabinists know and appreciate this!
Rachmaninoff also played all-Scriabin programs and the concerto after Scriabin’s death.
I wonder why so many people are ambivalent when they mention Scriabin.
It is wonderful music.,!!!
Vladimir Ashkenazy performed and recorded “Mysterium” a very interesting re-construction of a few bars of this project
…