Alexander SCRIABIN (1872-1915)
Waltz in D flat; Waltz in G sharp minor; Mazurka in B Minor; Mazurka in F; Mazurka in B Minor - Appendix; Nocturne in flat; Sonata-Fantaisie in sharp minor; Feuillet d'album de Monighetti; Scherzo in E flat; Scherzo in A flat; Piano Piece 1887 B-flat minor; Variations on a Theme of M-ll Egoroff in F Minor; Sonata in E flat minor; Fuge of 4 in F minor; Fuge of 5 in E Minor; Etude in D-sharp minor opus 8 Number 12 - Alternate Version 1894-95; Canon in D minor; Feuille d'album in F sharp
Julian SCRIABIN (1908-1919)
Prelude op. 2; Two Preludes op. 3; Prelude
Maria Lettberg (piano)
rec. Studio Gärtnerstrasse, Berlin, Germany, 11-13 January, 2012
ES DUR RECORDS ES 2040 [67:31]
Hard on the heels of reviewing a disc that included Korngold’s
Piano Trio, written when the composer was still only 12 years old, comes
a disc of Scriabin’s piano works that were mainly composed before
he was 16. It ends with four pieces composed by his son in the two years
before he tragically drowned aged eleven in 1919.
The striking thing is the Chopinesque nature of the early Scriabin pieces.
They’re so very different to his later works with their dreamy,
ethereal and mystical qualities. None of these early works, all without
opus numbers, were ever intended for publication. Scriabin had presumably
decided that they were mere juvenilia unworthy of public exposure; his
later music was from such a different world. We must be profoundly thankful
that he never destroyed them though some others have been lost. There
is an affecting childlike innocence that emerges from these pieces as
well as a growing awareness of the pleasures and pain of young love. Several
of them dedicated to some of his teenage girl-friends. All are delightful
as well as being extraordinarily satisfying and extremely well constructed.
His mother, who died when Scriabin was a mere fourteen months old, was
an outstanding concert pianist. It is clear that she left an indelible
musical mark on her son and it is sad to think she was never to hear or
play her son’s highly skilful early piano excursions. A measure
of how brilliantly successful these pieces are is the fact that one could
never tire of hearing them. On each hearing one discovers new elements
in them. Whether the adorable little waltzes, the spirited mazurkas, the
delicious nocturne or the fiery scherzos there is so much to admire and
marvel. You need constantly to remind yourself that in most cases they
were written by a boy between the ages of 11 and 17.
Shades of what was to come later are in evidence in his weighty Sonata
in E flat minor of 1887-89 which for a teenager is an astonishingly
mature work with some fabulously rich passages. The Bachian Fugue
in F minor is another richly satisfying little gem as is another
in E minor. I had to check that his Etude in D sharp minor was
really his since I thought I recognised it as definitely by Chopin. Since
this is listed as an alternative version it must be that I simply know
the original; in any event it is gorgeous. The penultimate work here is
his earliest too, written when he only eleven and showing what talent
he already had. His early pieces end with Feuille d’album in
F sharp major which, in the context of the rest, seems almost a ‘late’
work since he composed it at the age of 28. It only serves to emphasise
how advanced his thinking was so many years before.
From father to son and another example of a prodigious talent, in his
case so tragically cut short at the age of eleven. His Prelude Op.2
shows not just talent but advanced thinking, surely influenced by his
father’s otherworldly outpourings, with its introspective nature.
This continues with the other three works, the Two preludes Op.3
and the Prelude of 1919. It is enough to make one weep to think
of what might have been had he lived. On this evidence the world would
have seen another giant of keyboard writing.
A father who died at the early age of 43 and a son who only lived to the
age of eleven; how fate robs the world at times. We must be thankful that
we have what there is and that is considerable in the father’s case.
In general this disc, which includes some first recordings, is a highly
valuable addition to the recorded legacy of a true original in his formative
years and of his obviously talented son. Put together with the pianistic
talents of Latvian-born Maria Lettberg, whose elegant playing serves the
music so well, this is an irresistible disc of beautiful and delicate
music that is extremely infectious and that will never be far from my
CD player.
Steve Arloff
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