14 Jun 2015

Scriabin - Moscow Mystic

From Composer of the Week, 9:00 am on 14 June 2015
Alexander Scriabin in 1903

Alexander Scriabin in 1903 Photo: Public Domain

 

In this programme, Peter Hoar tries to untangle Scriabin’s philosophic ideals and complex music, concluding, “he wasn’t mad, just mystical.”

“As a true original it’s hard to fit him neatly into a tidy history of Western music. His highly individual brand of spiritualism and has led more sober critics and historians to dismiss him as a wild crank.

"Funnily enough he seems to fit quite well with our modern age when New Age spiritualism and ideas imported wholesale from other cultures such as mindfulness fill self-help books, magazines, and websites.”

Alexander Scriabins key color association
Alexander Scriabin's key-colour association.

Related Listening:

  • Scriabin's Symphony No 3
  • Scriabin's Nocturne for the Left Hand
  • Music Details:

    SCRIABIN: Deux Poèmes Op. 69, No.2, Allegretto  - Garrick Ohlsson (Hyperion)
    SCRIABIN: Etude in C# minor, Op. 2, No. 1  - Piers Lane (Helios)
    SCRIABIN: Prelude in B, Op.2, No.2  - Piers Lane (Helios)
    SCRIABIN: Prelude. Op. 74, No. 5, 'Fier, belliqueux'  - John Ogden (EMI)
    SCRIABIN: Sonata No. 9 in F ('Black Mass'), Op. 68  - Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca)
    SCRIABIN: Prometheus The Poem of Fire Op.60  - Kirov Orchestra, St Petersburg/Alexander Toradze (Phillips)
    SCRIABIN: Two Pieces, Op. 57, No. 1. ‘Desir’  - Alexander Scriabin (piano roll) (Pierian)
    SCRIABIN: Symphony 4 Op.54 (Poem of Ecstasy)  - Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca)