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
Klassiek - Released by Russian Compact Disc on 9 nov. 1996
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Scriabin: Etude in D-Sharp Minor, Op. 8, No. 12 (Digitally Remastered)
Klassiek - Released by EMG Classical on 29 jun. 2015
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The Art of Nikolai Golovanov: Scriabin - The Poem of Ecstasy & The Poem of Fire "Prometheus"
Klassiek - Released by Music Online on 7 dec. 2007
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Scriabin: Rare Records
Klassiek - Released by Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga Musica on 10 okt. 1996
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Scriabin: The Preludes Vol. 2
Klassiek - Released by Globe on 1 mrt. 1993
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Scriabin: Preludes, Poems and Sonatas for Piano
Klassiek - Released by Bomba-Piter (Manchester) on 8 mei 2015
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Alexander Scriabin: Mazurkas
Klassiek - Released by Classical Records on 12 nov. 2002
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Recital in The Great Hall of The Moscow Conservatoire
Klassiek - Released by Classical Records on 16 okt. 2002
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Scriabin: Prelude in E-Flat Minor, Op. 16, No. 4 (Digitally Remastered)
Klassiek - Released by EMG Classical on 29 jun. 2015
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The Art of Nikolai Golovanov: Scriabin - Symphony No. 3 "Divine Poem"
Klassiek - Released by Music Online on 7 dec. 2007
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The Art of Nikolai Golovanov: Scriabin - Symphony No. 2
Klassiek - Released by Music Online on 7 dec. 2007
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Wonderful Classical Music Of Alexander Scriabin
Lounge - Released by Classical Nutrale Records on 11 aug. 2017
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Fantasy for 2 pianos in A minor, op. posth.
Duo Fortin-Poirier, Alexander Scriabin
Klassiek - Released by Duo Fortin-Poirier on 11 feb. 2022
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Chill To The Music Of Alexander Scriabin
Klassiek - Released by Only Between Us Records on 9 jun. 2017
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The Definitive Collection Of Alexander Scriabin
Pop - Released by Only Between Us Records on 9 jun. 2017
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Instrumental Poetry: Alexander Scriabin
Klassiek - Released by Only Between Us Records on 26 mei 2017
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Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54 (Digitally Remastered)
Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Fedoseyev
Symfonische muziek - Released by EMG Classical on 29 jun. 2015
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Scriabin: Andante for Strings in A Major (Digitally Remastered)
Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Igor Zhukov
Kamermuziek - Released by EMG Classical on 29 jun. 2015
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Scriabin Piano Sonatas, Volume II
Klassiek - Released by Roméo Records on 1 mrt. 2015
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The Art of Henry Neighaus, Vol. II: Scriabin, Works for Piano
Klassiek - Released by Classical Records on 1 jun. 2005
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Winners Of The 3rd Scriabin Piano Competition
Klassiek - Released by Classical Records on 1 jan. 2004
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