Scriabin

There are a bunch of 2fers and 3fers around. I recommend the 2fer on London/Decca/Universal with Ashkenazy playing the 10 sonatas and some misc. short pieces. In sonata 5 you get to hear him bust a string! Ashkenazy can seem like an uncommitted player at times but he's on fire in this Scriabin set.

Also on Universal in their Trio series of 3fers, there's a set with Robert Szidon doing all the sonatas and a bunch of other stuff. I have not heard this one, but I have Szidon in some Liszt and don't doubt he'd be excellent.

Richter and Horowitz are both amazing in Sonata 9. I think all Horowitz's CBS Scriabin recordings are on a single disc now incl. Sonata 9. Can't remember which live Richter release has Scriabin 9 on it...

"I wish I could possess the world as I possess a woman; an ocean of cosmic love encloses the world and in the intoxicated waves of this ocean of bliss is felt the approach of the final act--the act of union between the male-creator and the woman-world."

whoever chose this painting for this cover was really on to something

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/515-37TRqnL._SS500_.jpg

Or just ON something.

More all round discussion here:

http://r3ok.myforum365.com/index.php?topic=848.0

wait! if you're getting scriabin sonatas, get the Marc-Andre Hamelin on Hyperion! I'm sure the Szidon ones are good, too, but, i mean, M.AH!

Cite de la Musique is performing his unfinished opera later this season that he intended to be his masterpiece. (Or something like that)

never quite enjoyed his piano music as much as i'd expect given my affinity for that kinda chromatic tradition through liszt--debussy etc but the second sonata on the yuja wang sonatas/etudes album is great

disconcertingly restrained, like daniel plainview tending to bonsai

"I wish I could possess the world as I possess a woman; an ocean of cosmic love encloses the world and in the intoxicated waves of this ocean of bliss is felt the approach of the final act--the act of union between the male-creator and the woman-world."

as compared to this sort of proto-lj stuff you usually associate w/ scriabin

i came to him sort of without context (this is a lie, i came to him because in a philip dick novel someone listened to something called a BLACK MASS SONATA and i thought WOAH BLACK MASS SONATA AWESOME) so i never associated that stuff with it. also, i just searched for this thread for basically the same question i asked two and a half years ago, with no memory of asking it.

i think i was away from the internet and the time and never saw the responses. so thanks!

by proto-lj was nakhchivan referring to the person or the website, i wonder

ha i'd totally forgotten about the second sonata

that totally reads like a 2k8 era l0u j4g post doesn't it? which is a good thing in its way, cuz the poem of ecstasy is probably my favourite scriabin

need more Scriabin recs. Am listening to his piano etudes right now, performed by S. Richter. Am with the post above about never having enjoyed him as much as I thought I should, and thus far, I think it's because his music seemed too traditionally romantic to me, unlike, say Debussy or even the late period Liszt. Can anyone give me their impressions of his writing "style"?

I knew a Scriabin specialist some years ago. I mean a real obsessive who had tracked down surviving relatives and the recordings by just about every capable pianist who had ever tackled his work.

I was already interested in the composer, knew him by reputation, asked for a primer and got it. I came away with two words unmistakably inscribed on my skull.

Sofronitsky & Denon

http://berloga50.static.corbina.ru/Scriabin%20by%20Sofronitsky/CD/Scriabin-Recitale%20Febr.%202%201960%20(DENON,%20v.7)/sofronitsky.scriabin.recital_01.front.jpg

thank you! Listening now on youtube, first thought is that the performance is much clearer than others I've heard. Sofronitsky really takes time to make each note audible, and with this music, I think that helps. I haven't actually looked at much Scriabin sheet music, but rhythmically, it seems all over the place, almost sounding improvised at times. Wonder how much is left to the performer.

Redirect from here. . .

Turns out, I have three Scriabin albums that I've not played in at least a decade. They are this one, this one, and this one (the two with the "psychedelic" covers indicate that they were, "Newly recorded in the USSR" — talk about a totally obsolete cover).

I've got some Schubert on my plate right now, but I will be checking back in after I get these on the turntable for some thoughts.