Alexander Scriabin
Mystic, visionary, virtuoso, and composer, Scriabin dedicated his life to creating musical works which would, as he believed, open the portals of the spiritual world. Scriabin took piano lessons as a child, joining, in 1884, Nikolay Zverov's class, where Rachmaninov was a fellow student. From 1888 to 1892, Scriabin studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers included Arensky, Taneyev, and Safonov. Although Scriabin's hand could not easily stretch beyond an octave, he developed into a prodigious pianist, launching an international concert career in 1894. Scriabin started composing during his Conservatory years. Mostly inspired by Chopin, his early works include nocturnes, mazurkas, preludes, and etudes for piano. Typical examples of Romantic music for the piano, these works nevertheless reveal the composer's strong individuality. Toward the end of the century, Scriabin started writing orchestral works, earning a solid reputation as a composer, and obtaining a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory in 1898. In 1903, however, Scriabin abandoned his wife and their four children and embarked on a European journey with a young admirer, Tatyana Schloezer. During his sojourn in Western Europe, which lasted six years, Scriabin started developing an original, highly personal musical idiom, experimenting with new harmonic structures and searching for new sonorities. Among the works composed during this time was the Divine Poem.
In 1905, Scriabin discovered the theosophical teachings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, which became the intellectual foundation of his musical and philosophical efforts. In true Romantic tradition, he sought to situate his work as a composer in the wider spiritual and intellectual context of his age. Previously influenced by Nietzsche's ideas about the advent of a superhuman being, Scriabin embraced theosophy as an intellectual framework for his profound feelings about humankind's quest for God. Works from this period, exemplified by the Poem of Ecstasy (1908) and Prometheus (1910), reflect Scriabin's conception of music as a bridge to mystical ecstasy. While the ideas underlying his works may seem far-fetched, Scriabin's musical language included some fascinating, and very tangible, innovations, such as chords based on fourths and unexpected chromatic effects. Lacking an inner forward-moving force, Scriabin's later works nevertheless fascinate the listener by harmonic transformations which aim to reflect certain undefinable aspects of human consciousness. In addition, the composer, who strongly believed in the synaesthetic nature of art, experimented with sounds and colors, indicating, for example, lighting specification for the performance of particular works. Indeed, Scriabin's interest in color was hardly academic, considering that , as an orchestrator, he exploited the full potential of orchestral color. While Scriabin never quite crossed the threshold to atonality, his music nevertheless replaced the traditional concept of tonality by an intricate system of chords, some of which (e.g., the "mystic chord": C-F sharp-B flat-E-A-D) had an esoteric meaning. Scriabin's gradual move into realms beyond traditional tonality can be clearly heard in his ten piano sonatas; the last five, composed during 1912-1913, are without key signatures and certainly contain atonal moments. In 1915, Scriabin died in of septicemia caused by a carbuncle on his lip. Among his unfinished project was Mysterium, a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world.
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Russian Piano School: Valery Kastelsky, Vol. 2
Classique - Paru chez Russian Compact Disc le 9 nov. 1996
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Scriabin: Etude in D-Sharp Minor, Op. 8, No. 12 (Digitally Remastered)
Classique - Paru chez EMG Classical le 29 juin 2015
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The Art of Nikolai Golovanov: Scriabin - The Poem of Ecstasy & The Poem of Fire "Prometheus"
Classique - Paru chez Music Online le 7 déc. 2007
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Scriabin: Rare Records
Classique - Paru chez Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga Musica le 10 oct. 1996
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Scriabin: The Preludes Vol. 2
Classique - Paru chez Globe le 1 mars 1993
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Scriabin: Preludes, Poems and Sonatas for Piano
Classique - Paru chez Bomba-Piter (Manchester) le 8 mai 2015
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Alexander Scriabin: Mazurkas
Classique - Paru chez Classical Records le 12 nov. 2002
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Recital in The Great Hall of The Moscow Conservatoire
Classique - Paru chez Classical Records le 16 oct. 2002
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Scriabin: Prelude in E-Flat Minor, Op. 16, No. 4 (Digitally Remastered)
Classique - Paru chez EMG Classical le 29 juin 2015
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The Art of Nikolai Golovanov: Scriabin - Symphony No. 3 "Divine Poem"
Classique - Paru chez Music Online le 7 déc. 2007
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The Art of Nikolai Golovanov: Scriabin - Symphony No. 2
Classique - Paru chez Music Online le 7 déc. 2007
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Wonderful Classical Music Of Alexander Scriabin
Lounge - Paru chez Classical Nutrale Records le 11 août 2017
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Fantasy for 2 pianos in A minor, op. posth.
Duo Fortin-Poirier, Alexander Scriabin
Classique - Paru chez Duo Fortin-Poirier le 11 févr. 2022
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Chill To The Music Of Alexander Scriabin
Classique - Paru chez Only Between Us Records le 9 juin 2017
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The Definitive Collection Of Alexander Scriabin
Pop - Paru chez Only Between Us Records le 9 juin 2017
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Instrumental Poetry: Alexander Scriabin
Classique - Paru chez Only Between Us Records le 26 mai 2017
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Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54 (Digitally Remastered)
Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Fedoseyev
Musique symphonique - Paru chez EMG Classical le 29 juin 2015
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Scriabin: Andante for Strings in A Major (Digitally Remastered)
Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Igor Zhukov
Musique de chambre - Paru chez EMG Classical le 29 juin 2015
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Scriabin Piano Sonatas, Volume II
Classique - Paru chez Roméo Records le 1 mars 2015
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The Art of Henry Neighaus, Vol. II: Scriabin, Works for Piano
Classique - Paru chez Classical Records le 1 juin 2005
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Winners Of The 3rd Scriabin Piano Competition
Classique - Paru chez Classical Records le 1 janv. 2004
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