Twilight Romanticism...
Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 08/27/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
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Scriabin's piano Concerto--in the ultra-Romantic key of f#-minor--is every bit as good as Rachmaninov's 2nd (c#-minor), Tchaikovsky's 1st (bb-minor), or Grieg's (a-minor), and deserves better recognition. Especially fine is the hauntingly beautiful central andante movement.
There are a couple of other versions of Scriabin's Concerto available, but for the price and a very sympathetic Russian reading, this Arte Nova disc is a real bargan.
Also included, Scriabin's piano Sonata No. 1 (f-minor). In Scriabin's earlier work we may hear echos of not only Chopin, but much Beethoven and a little Lizst--all in their most serious vein. For Scriabin is a very serious artist: no friviolity.
Tastefully erotic cover-photo absolutely stunning!
See too: Scriabin: Complete Piano Sonatas , Scriabin: Poeme De L'extase / Piano Concerto / Promethee , Alexander Scriabin: The Complete Piano Sonatas , Scriabin: The Complete Piano Sonatas , The Early Scriabin , Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No1, Op23; Skryabin: Concerto for piano in F#m , Scriabin: Mazurkas - Complete / Long , Scriabin: Symphony No. 3 'Divine Poem'; Poem of Ecstasy [two piano version] , Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos / Richter , Grieg, Schumann: Piano Concertos / Radu Lupu, André Previn .
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Some Very Interesting Early Scriabin
M. C. Passarella | Lawrenceville, GA | 12/28/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Expecting to hear some grand, splashy affair like an early Rachmaninoff or Medtner concerto, imagine my surprise to find that Scriabin's only concerted work is indebted instead to the pearly pianistic style of Chopin! Of course, the chords are much knottier, the tutti passages much, much riper, bordering on the cinematic. This concerto comes from 1896, after all, not 1836. But still, especially considering the musical firebrand that Scriabin was to become, there is an old-fashioned coziness to many of the Concerto's pages. That's especially true of the slow movement, a set of variations on a sentimental sort of tune that, again, has a Chopinesque pedigree. This is an altogether attractive piece of music that can double as a guessing game at musical parties--your friends should have a hard time naming that composer!
Closer to Rachmaninoff is the Fantasy Op. 28. It reminds me in spots of Rachmaninoff's suites for two pianos, though it outdoes Rachmaninoff in late-Romantic swooning and posturing, more chromatic, more flexible in dynamics than Rachmaninoff almost ever is. It's a passionate work that borders on schamltz in places, but I like it, especially in Olga Sevidova's all-out performance.
Sevidova's father, Arkady, is heard in the other works on the disc, and he seems to play with a touch less heat, but maybe that's just in the nature of the Concerto itself. Certainly, he brings real energy to the First Piano Sonata, written as a protest to God in the wake of a near-crippling injury to Scriabin's hand. Again, Chopin is an obvious influence here (Scriabin even includes a funeral march, as Chopin did in his Second Sonata, though in Scriabin's sonata it is the last movement), with more than a few side glances at Liszt.
The piano sound throughout is very well captured by the Russian engineers. In the Concerto, the orchestra seems a trifle distant until you get the volume level right, and then it registers with sufficient power, though the strings seem a bit anemic. But given the playing of the Sevidovs and the quality of the music, and Arte Nova's nice price, this fact shouldn't seriously dampen any music lover's enjoyment, and I recommend the disc as a fascinating sampler of early Scriabin.
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Track Listings (10) - Disc #1