This disc gets its third outing in my Blog [24th April 2012 & 1st April 2011], a nice once a year regular, this is a good collection to have, not immensely representative, it veers towards the Preludes side of things, but he also composed Mazurkas, Etudes, and Poemes, but it's a nice mix, there's gems aplenty, if you're new to Scriabin, then one thing about his music for the novice, is that all his compositions can sound fairly much the same, it takes extra listening to find the uniqueness of each piece, today i did a lot of groundwork to really appreciating these pieces for the future, i can feel Scriabin starting to seep into my soul.
Sophia Lisovskaya is Russian, she's now 36, and she made this recording in 2000, the front cover photograph is by Karen Kartashian, and it's a wonderful portrait, a side profile i guess, not far off turning her back to the camera, as if she's caught from a session on the piano, just full of different shades of brown, almost a monotone shot, i like this portrait a lot, it's different and inventive.
Three pieces really took a shine to me, tracks 10, 15 & 23, here's a synopsis of each,
10 Prelude 8 [Op11/8] - A lovely surprise, i know the 24 Preludes Op11 fairly well, and Lisovskaya gives a selection of ten of them here, a nice mix, and this really stood out as something exceptional, marked Allegro Agitato, and in the fairly remote key of F Sharp Minor, it certainly lives up to the 'agitato' tag, the right hand sings in the treble, then has a jagged downward run, while the bass rumbles in the left, there's delicious turmoil there, lovely and restless, has to be heard to truly explain, a great little discovery for me today.
15 Prelude 1 [Op16/1] - One of the most gorgeous things Scriabin has ever done, i fell in love with this on a Lucille Chung disc, in some ways it sounds like Satie, but also a cross with the very best of Rachmaninov, the tune that the left hand conjures up is just stunning [0:12-0:45], something you can just float away on, very dreamily done, the amazing thing about it is Scriabin actually creates something more heavenly with it, the music turns to the treble keys to heighten their poetry [0:45-0:59], now that's one of those wow moments, and when the left hand opening returns [1:12+], it's a moment of pure magic, maybe it loses some of its specialness towards the end, but it's one hell [heaven!] of a creation.
23 Prelude [Op59/2] - Another amazing piece tucked away in his late oeuvre, Scriabin marks the score Sauvage / Belliqueux [wild / warlike], at first it's quite a complex muddle of things, but then it turns into these mysterious runs [0:31-0:51 & 1:25-1:45], full of the vague anchoring of any centre, and then it finishes almost in mid sentence, a great little piece once you get to know it.
Sophia Lisovskaya is Russian, she's now 36, and she made this recording in 2000, the front cover photograph is by Karen Kartashian, and it's a wonderful portrait, a side profile i guess, not far off turning her back to the camera, as if she's caught from a session on the piano, just full of different shades of brown, almost a monotone shot, i like this portrait a lot, it's different and inventive.
Three pieces really took a shine to me, tracks 10, 15 & 23, here's a synopsis of each,
10 Prelude 8 [Op11/8] - A lovely surprise, i know the 24 Preludes Op11 fairly well, and Lisovskaya gives a selection of ten of them here, a nice mix, and this really stood out as something exceptional, marked Allegro Agitato, and in the fairly remote key of F Sharp Minor, it certainly lives up to the 'agitato' tag, the right hand sings in the treble, then has a jagged downward run, while the bass rumbles in the left, there's delicious turmoil there, lovely and restless, has to be heard to truly explain, a great little discovery for me today.
15 Prelude 1 [Op16/1] - One of the most gorgeous things Scriabin has ever done, i fell in love with this on a Lucille Chung disc, in some ways it sounds like Satie, but also a cross with the very best of Rachmaninov, the tune that the left hand conjures up is just stunning [0:12-0:45], something you can just float away on, very dreamily done, the amazing thing about it is Scriabin actually creates something more heavenly with it, the music turns to the treble keys to heighten their poetry [0:45-0:59], now that's one of those wow moments, and when the left hand opening returns [1:12+], it's a moment of pure magic, maybe it loses some of its specialness towards the end, but it's one hell [heaven!] of a creation.
23 Prelude [Op59/2] - Another amazing piece tucked away in his late oeuvre, Scriabin marks the score Sauvage / Belliqueux [wild / warlike], at first it's quite a complex muddle of things, but then it turns into these mysterious runs [0:31-0:51 & 1:25-1:45], full of the vague anchoring of any centre, and then it finishes almost in mid sentence, a great little piece once you get to know it.
