Alexander SCRIABIN (1872-1915)
The Complete Works
DECCA 478 8168 [18 CDs]
The three Cs of cost, convenience and completeness seem
to be driving the current trend for these large surveys of composers'
or artists' work. Add to that the record companies and their desire
to wring the last drop of financial benefit from an extended but aging back
catalogue. For any established collector the presence of unwanted duplication
is offset by the ability to 'fill gaps' in a collection at a
price that even a few years ago would have seemed impossibly low.
The centenary of Scriabin's death in April 1915 is the hook on which
this 18 disc 'complete' edition of his work is hung. Complete
is a word beloved of marketing departments but often proves to be a rather
slippery concept. I have two other 'complete' sets of the Scriabin
piano works neither of which presents music identical to what we are offered
here. I am not enough of a Scriabin scholar to know of the existence of every
fragment of juvenilia and posthumous work or to be able to judge if such works
should merit inclusion. There are some inconsistencies; the set includes the
piano Fantasy in A minor for two pianos but not an orchestrated version (by
one G. Zinger) that appeared on an old Russian disc. Which is fair enough
since it is not 'original' Scriabin but then the final three
discs of the set do focus on the Alexander Nemtin conjectural composition
called Mysterium - of which only the first part is in any way based
on Scriabin sketches - and a Nemtin ballet called Nuances which is
in effect a series of orchestrated piano works. Then lastly - and probably
not completely - there is no sign of the two piano version of the Poem
of Ecstasy which is listed on the Scriabinsociety.com website.
So accept this set for what it is - as near a complete survey as we are likely
to get any time soon. Also, treat the Decca imprimatur with a degree of caution.
Universal have simply brought together recordings from a variety of original
sources - to be fair mainly Decca - but including Philips, DG and ASV and
called it a Decca release. I would have appreciated some explanation in the
liner as to why certain versions were preferred over others. The weakest element
of this set is a lingering feeling of arbitrariness regarding chosen versions.
Great store is made of the fact that the set contains "64 newly recorded
tracks" (link)
but on closer inspection this appears to be simply an act of plugging the
gaps in the back catalogue rather than any artistic wish to revisit the repertoire.
Worth noting too that Decca have released discs 1-8 as a separate 'Complete
Piano Music' edition and discs 11-18 the 'Complete Orchestral
Works' with another two disc/download "Ecstasy Essential Scriabin"
set. Which always makes me wonder if there will be a follow-up "The Unessential
Scriabin" sometime later.
Clearly, the piano was central to Scriabin's work and his most abiding
legacy. Discs 1-8 present this in opus number order - which I must admit I
rather like - with disc 9 tidying up the loose ends with the works without
opus number and Scriabin's sole contribution to song. The other option
would have been to gather all the Sonatas on a pair of discs, the Preludes
on another and so on. I am sure some would prefer that as a perfectly valid
way of presenting the works. I found that by juxtaposing works of significantly
different scale and ambition but adjacent opus numbers I got a greater sense
of the range of expression Scriabin was seeking to achieve. In the main Decca
'stick' with one performer for the bulk of a sub-group of works.
Hence Ashkenazy's well-respected cycle of the ten sonatas is the backbone
here - but why slip in Ivo Pogorelich's very individual take on No.2
or Sviatoslav Richter's version of the 5th and Pierre-Laurent Aimard's
No.9? Coincidentally both Pogorelich's and Aimard's sonatas
were originally coupled on DG with the Liszt. Granted, Richter's ex-DG
live performance recorded in Italy in the early 1960s represents him at the
height of his remarkable powers but if Richter in No.5 why not other pianists
in the other sonatas too - without an explanation this seems oddly arbitrary.
That being said I find Pogorelich's extraordinarily freely rhapsodic
treatment of the opening Andante of the Fantasie-Sonata to be wholly compelling
if quite unlike other versions I have heard. This early Sonata is a good touchstone
for stylistic variation. Of the other versions I know I have a slightly irrational
affection for Michael Ponti's complete Scriabin traversal on Vox-Turnabout.
The recorded sound clanks and clangs and is rarely if ever beautiful. In performance
terms there are moments when Ponti seems to be hurtling down a musical precipice
one second away from catastrophe - the very antithesis of Pogorelich's
poise - but somehow this results in an often compelling listening experience;
music as a white-knuckle ride. Then Håkon Austbø on Brilliant is much more
in control but I find him a fraction literal and detached. Of the versions
I know, most successful at pulling together the entire gamut of emotions that
Scriabin encompasses, and having the technical resource to back it up too,
is the relatively unknown Maria Lettberg on Capriccio. This is currently a
tremendous bargain online for around £15.00 for an eight disc set (review)
and a bonus DVD of a discussion about Mysterium. Lettberg is very
much a Scriabin specialist and a player whose work deserves very serious consideration.
I have not heard the recordings by the likes of Mark-André Hamelin on Hyperion
or other Scriabin specialists such as John Ogdon and recently Yevgeny
Sudbin on BIS amongst many others.
Solo piano recitals seem to garner more debate in various on-line forums than
just about anything else except opera. One person's 'junk'
is another's 'definitive' version so that all of the
recordings and performers represented here have been viewed as revelatory
or rubbish. Gordon Fergus-Thompson is a case in point. ASV entrusted him with
complete surveys of Debussy and Ravel as well as the Scriabin reproduced here.
Perfectly legitimately - and apologies for a generalisation - he sees much
of this music as being part of the same music continuum as Chopin albeit expressed
in more modernistic and Russian manner. Particularly with much of the earlier
music and the slighter forms Scriabin employed there is a danger - to which
many pianist succumb to 'retro-fit' the mania and modernisms
of the later music onto the earlier works. To my ear Fergus-Thompson is very
successful at allowing this music reveal a grace and elegance that is not
often associated with this composer. Aside from Ashkenazy's survey
of the Sonatas and other works Fergus-Thompson is the main contributor to
the piano music so collectors will need to decide whether his approach appeals
or not.
Generally across the entire set the recorded sound is pretty good - again
the Decca analogue sound for Ashkenazy is vintage 1970s (mainly) and alongside
that the ASV 1990s digital is good but not exceptional. I had read criticisms
elsewhere of the piano sound afforded the DG sourced discs. The wide dynamic
range does mean the louder passages can harangue if the volume is set too
high to accommodate the quieter poetic musings but I have to say I was not
unduly troubled by the sound at all. As mentioned, gaps in the repertoire
are 'plugged' by new recordings mainly performed by new(ish)
Decca star Valentina Lisitsa. An example of the 'bittyness'
that rather annoys me - disc 1 includes the Op.2 No.1 Etude from Ashkenazy's
new (2014) Scriabin recital (review)
but Lisitsa is brought in for Nos.2 and 3 because they were not part of the
older pianist's recital. Perhaps it is a tiny thing but with Lisitsa
recording so much else would it not have made coherent artistic sense for
her to record the three Op.2 pieces as a complete group? Particularly since
Lisitsa proves to be an impressive interpreter of Scriabin. I like very much
the direct simplicity of her approach to the 'early' works that
make up the piano works without Opus numbers on disc 9 - this is quite lovely
playing of simple music. She has a very clean and articulate technique - I
did find myself wondering whether in the more wayward later works - Poème
Satanique Op.36 on disc 6 for example - there is a degree of remarkable control;
a lack of sense of impetuosity perhaps - that somehow takes something away
from the impact this music can have. Anna Gourari is another Decca artist
who is called upon to plug a gap - in her case a single short track from her
'Desir' album which is significant for being WoO1 in the Scriabin
catalogue. For a miniature she plays it very beautifully so frustrating not
to hear more of her work. The eighth disc gives the listener an instant comparison
between the various pianistic styles on offer. It contains the last three
sonatas - 8 and 10 from Ashkenzy sandwiching the previously mentioned No.9
'Black Mass' from Aimard. The remaining works on the disc are
played by Ashkenazy except for the two Op.67 Preludes given by Fergus-Thompson
and the two Op.73 Danses by Richter. For all the Satanic allusions the title
might conjure the ninth sonata is a condensed complex and elusive work and
for all that I admire Aimard's technical skill and musical poise I
find it strangely detached. For once Ponti's stormy approach and the
crudeness of the recording makes for a more compelling musical journey. The
majority of the later works are notable for their compression and the harmonic
freedom they display. In a counter-intuitive way it is easy for such short
pieces to sound as if they ramble. Richter's brief pair of pieces -
from a 1992 live concert in Holland (the audience are attentive but faintly
audible) is an excellent example of how to maintain a coherent musical line
through these complex scores. However, both he and the recording sound rather
crude at the climax of No.2 'Flammes sombres' next to Lettberg
who is happy just to let the music be elusive - she plays the notes rather
than feeling the need to explain them too. The sound afforded Fergus-Thompson
by ASV is more veiled and less immediate which has the effect of blurring
some of the inner detail.
So, not surprisingly the effect of bringing together a group of diverse performers
and recordings for these piano works is something of a mixed blessing. Individual
taste and preference will dictate the balance between perceived 'hits'
and 'misses'. Discs 9 and 10 are valuable if 'completeness'
is an over-riding consideration as they hoover up between them the early piano
works and the token chamber and orchestral pieces. Scriabin's single
song is no forgotten masterpiece and the D minor Duett WoO10 could have been
written by just about any composer of maudlin Slavic ballads. Why it was considered
a good idea to have soprano Anush Hovhannisyan track both of the vocal lines
I do not know. I understand that no studio recording is ever anything more
than an illusion of a 'real' performance - knowing that it has
been stitched together in this way rather rubs that in. Richard Watkins contributes
a lyrical Horn Romance that is enjoyable but again no work of great individuality.
Roberto Szidon brings his considerable technique to the early un-numbered
Sonata which is certainly worth hearing but his 1970 recording is one of the
least impressive in the box and his piano not an instrument of great tonal
beauty.
Disc 10 includes Scriabin's one foray into the world of quartet repertoire.
This is a short Allegretto movement as his contribution to a composite Theme
and Variations on a Russian theme work featuring ten Russian composers of
varying degrees of posthumous fame from Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov to Nikolai
Artsibushev and Alexander Winkler. The Kuss Quartet perform the whole work
well if not exceptionally and it contains some interesting movements - although
the Scriabin is a less than completely involving 51 second exercise in flowing
counterpoint. Rimsky-Korsakov's offering is much more interesting.
I did not know the Andante and Scherzo for strings which receive rather sloppy
and poor live performances from the Hamburg Strings - on the evidence of the
works as presented here again nothing of any great worth. The remainder of
disc 10 is better known both as works and - in the case of the Piano Concerto
- performances. The Symphonic Poem is curious because although so titled there
does not seem to be any extra-musical narrative it is illustrating. As such
it is simply a quarter-hour piece of Russian gloom which is not the equal
of any of Tchaikovsky essays in the genre. The 1995 performance here from
Igor Golovschin and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra is competent but I prefer
the extra urgency and Soviet brashness that Boris Demchenko and the USSR Radio
SO bring to the work - a full three minutes quicker than Golovschin - on the
same Russian Disc mentioned previously for containing the orchestrated Fantasy.
The generic nature of the work rather highlights the fact that Scriabin was
at his considerable best when he was not trying to emulate any of
his contemporaries. The Piano Concerto sits on the cusp of generic and original.
Ashkenazy is again at the keyboard and receives strong support from Lorin
Maazel and the LPO dating from 1971 with a classic Decca analogue recording
in the Kingsway Hall engineered by Kenneth Wilkinson and Stanley Goodall.
The sound is remarkably fine for its age with a fractional edge to the string
tone betraying its age. This recording has been in the catalogue pretty much
continuously and has been challenged in more recent times by the award-winning
Demidenko
on Hyperion amongst others but to my ear this remains a convincing interpretation.
When Ashkenazy moves to the conductor's rostrum I am less impressed.
For two of the three numbered Symphonies this set has selected Ashkenazy's
cycle with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from the early 1990s (review).
In isolation these performances are perfectly acceptable with fine playing
and good engineering. The issue lies with Ashkenazy's overall approach
to the works. The catalogue is not exactly over-burdened with complete Scriabin
Symphony cycles but other conductors make far stronger cases for individual
works or indeed the whole cycle. In direct competition, and available on Brilliant
Classics is the ex-EMI
Classics set from Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. This proved
to be one of Muti's most successful recordings in Philadelphia and
the sheer quality of the orchestra and the weight of tone they can produce
utterly overwhelms the Decca performances in every respect. Ashkenazy sounds
cautious and in his hands the closing choral movement right down to the rather
academic fugal writing sounds effortful and clumsy. At the opposite end of
the tonal/opulent spectrum from Muti is Svetlanov and an old cycle from his
beloved USSRSO originally on Melodiya. This can still be tracked down on various
RCA-twofers at a price and embodies the wild histrionics of Scriabin. Svetlanov's
great gift was to perform music at white heat with total conviction - this
might result in some unsubtle, even crude recordings but they are exciting
and Scriabin in his orchestral music needs that sense of unbridled excitement.
For some reason, Eliahu Inbal's 1979 Frankfurt RSO performance of the
2nd Symphony has been chosen over Ashkenazy. Again this is a perfectly serviceable
performance but nothing to make an inattentive listener sit up and take particular
notice. Also, for 1979, this ex-Philips recording is nothing special with
a couple of curious analogue dropouts and edits rather audible. For the Second
and Third Symphonies competition in the catalogue becomes considerably stiffer.
Neeme Järvi on Chandos
is absolutely in his element and both recordings are classic examples of Chandos
production values in the early 1990s and illustrations of just how productive
Järvi's relationship with the (then) Scottish National Orchestra was.
In many ways it strikes me that Järvi steers the best path between the lushness
of Muti and the fevered demonics of Svetlanov. This becomes even more attractive
when it can be found on a Chandos twofer at less than £7.00 second-hand (as
of August 2015). I see that Dmitri Kitaenko's cycle on RCA also with
the Frankfurt RSO has just been re-released at bargain price - I used to own
that set in its original release but my memory is that it was rather underwhelming.
The progression from the relatively traditional, almost formal elements of
the First Symphony through to the excesses of the Poems of Ecstasy
and Fire - which are sometimes called the fourth and fifth Symphonies
- are a neat mirror for Scriabin's development as a composer. Certainly
by the time you reach the Poem of Ecstasy any sense of being underwhelmed
is a dangerous failing in a performance. Fortunately for this box, by some
distance the finest orchestral disc is reserved for these two works and is
in the hands of Valery Gergiev and his Kirov Orchestra. These performances
were originally the fillers for Gergiev's performances of Stravinsky
ballets (review)
and as such I was not convinced the couplings made for the best of bed-fellows.
Here, as part of the Scriabin 'experience' they come into their
own as the high-water mark of the composer's aesthetic. His ideal performance
would include light displays and a total sensory immersion that seems far
less extreme today than it did as a concept over a century ago. They remain
two orchestral showpieces but where Gergiev succeeds so well is in being both
technically imperious but also retaining a sensual wildness that quite sweeps
away any reservations. Järvi includes the work in his twofer with the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra and there is a typically blazing Svetlanov version amongst
many others but for the best balance of beauty, barbarity and brilliance I
am not sure I have heard anything better than Gergiev.
Where to go after creating a work intended to saturate all the human senses
in one go? At what point does the visionary become delusional? I am not able
to pass judgement on the second question but the answer to the first would
seem to be Mysterium. Quite possibly the most grandly overblown work
ever conceived. Conceived is the important word since Scriabin never got beyond
sketching the opening Prefatory Act for the larger work. To quote
from the website www.scriabinsociety.com: "Scriabin considered his last
music to be fragments of an immense piece to be called Mysterium.
This seven-day-long megawork would be performed at the foothills of the Himalayas
in India, after which the world would dissolve in bliss. Bells suspended from
clouds would summon spectators. Sunrises would be preludes and sunsets codas.
Flames would erupt in shafts of light and sheets of fire. Perfumes appropriate
to the music would change and pervade the air. At the time of his death, Scriabin
left 72 orchestral-size pages of sketches for a preliminary work Prefatory
Action, intended to "prepare" the world for the apocalyptic
ultimate masterpiece. Alexander Nemtin, the Russian composer, assembled those
jottings and co-created the Prefatory Action."
The key-phrase there is 'co-created'. Given the scale of the
work, it comes as no surprise that the three sections were created over a
twenty-year span. The first section Universe comes from 1972 and
as such was recorded by Kirill Kondrashin with his Moscow PO for Melodiya.
No surprise that the newer Decca recording is far more sophisticated than
the earlier Soviet disc. Kondrashin is around a minute quicker than Ashkenazy
which on a forty minute time-frame is not a huge difference. Without a doubt
Nemtin has absorbed Scriabin's idiom to a remarkable degree so that
where Scriabin - in some form - ends and Nemtin begins I cannot tell. This
is a work that has achieved a mythical status due to wildly inflated concept
behind it that is described above. In its original three disc set (review),
this version - and we are unlikely to get another anytime soon I imagine -
did not stay in the catalogue long and as such still commands high prices
in the secondhand market. In one of those wonderful vagaries of that market,
at the point of writing the original Mysterium set is on sale secondhand
for £50.00 with this re-release 18 disc set available for under £34.00. The
casualties are the extended essays although most is gained from this work
by experiencing it rather than reading about it. I have to admit that on several
different occasions I tried to listen to the full 160 minutes in a single
sitting. Perhaps for others there would be a transcendent experience, I have
to say my mind wandered. The harmony is so endlessly convoluted, the textures
thick, the emotional temperature high that in the end I found myself craving
clarity and simplicity. I could imagine the work being impressive in a live
performance if some brave producer could ever attempt to stage it incorporating
as many of Scriabin's theatrical effects as possible - certainly its
goal of being a total immersion of all the senses seems much more in tune
with the current age than when it was written and for that alone it must be
considered a visionary work.
This performance will remain unchallenged I am sure, so any criticism is ultimately
pointless. Without a score to hand it is very hard to know whether what we
hear is a faithful reproduction of the score on the page. I have a nagging
suspicion that Ashkenazy fails to 'drive' the work as much as
might help. Another ten minutes of perfumed languor does pall but having said
that I was much more impressed by this as a performance than the low-temperature
symphonies.
This complete edition finishes with a 'bonus' disc entitled
'Scriabin across the generations'. The cynic in me finds it
hard not to see this as a way of Universal marketing some of their younger
- very fine - pianists while also paying lip-service to some others not represented
elsewhere in the box. But any such collection will spark a debate about performers
and performances included over those omitted. So it is good to hear Horowitz
and Cherkassky alongside Pletnev and Kissin as well as the younger pianists
Trifonov and Grosvenor. Cherkassky's sole contribution is a jewel -
the gently ruminative Prelude in D major Op.11 No.5. Trifonov's traversal
of the Sonate-Fantasie Op.19 is all the more remarkable for being part of
a live recital from the Carnegie Hall. The sheer clarity and articulation
are little short of astonishing but in purely poetic terms I find Pogorelich's
interpretation more humane and engaging.
Some final details. Playing times across the discs range from remarkable -
disc 6 is 83 minutes long - to mean - Gergiev's two Poems total just
43. But in many ways that is an irrelevance and I think the set planners have
done a good job laying the music out across the multiple discs. The sound
is - as mentioned - variable and certainly if you dip in from disc to disc
quite noticeable. However, when any group of pieces is taken in isolation
the ear quickly adjusts. As is the norm with these sets it is presented in
a simple fold-flat cardboard box with each disc in an identical cardboard
slip - only the track-listings and artists on the back differ. There is an
82 page booklet in English, French and German which contains CD listings including
producers, recording dates and locations as well as a good essay by Hugh Macdonald
and some artist photographs, the text for the finale of Symphony No.1 is included
but not for the single song.
Which brings me back to my three Cs. In those terms alone this has to be deemed
a successful box. For completeness sake alone it has no direct competition
and for returning the three-disc Mysterium to the current catalogue
it is unlikely ever to be matched. For those who require the core Scriabin
of the main piano works and the three symphonies and two orchestral poems
there are strong calls for other performances although Gergiev's contribution
is remarkable.
Scriabin was a unique musical voice and this set reinforces that impression
beyond doubt.
Nick Barnard
Contents List
Disc 1:
Waltz in F minor Op.1 [3:41]
3 Pieces Op.2 [4:30]
10 Mazurkas Op.3 [39:58]
Allegro Appassionato Op.4 [9:11]
2 Nocturnes Op.5 [6:07]
total time: 64:27
Disc 2:
Piano Sonata No.1 in F minor Op.6 [20:42]
2 Impromptus a la Mazur Op.7 [9:29]
12 Etudes Op.8 [33:58]
Alternative version Op.8 No12 WoO 22 [2:34]
total time: 66:43
Disc 3
Prelude & Nocturne for the Left Hand Op.9 [8:56]
2 Impromptus Op.10 [8:01]
24 Preludes Op.11 [34:20]
2 Impromptus Op.12 [9:46]
6 Preludes Op.13 [8:50]
2 Impromptus Op.14 [6:11]
total time: 76:04
Disc 4
5 Preludes Op.15 [7:35]
5 Preludes Op.16 [9:09]
7 Preludes Op.17 [9:54]
Allegro de concert in B flat minor Op.18 [5:46]
Piano Sonata No.2 in G sharp minor Op.19 'Sonate-fantasie' [14:21]
Polonaise Op.21 [1:09]
4 Preludes Op.22 [14:48]
Piano Sonata No.3 in F sharp minor Op.23
total time: 77:26
Disc 5
9 Mazurkas Op.25 [33:03]
2 Preludes Op.27 [2:42]
Fantasie in B minor Op.28 [9:35]
Piano Sonata No.4 in F sharp major Op.30 [8:09]
4 Preludes Op.31 [4:57]
2 Poèmes Op.32 [4:39]
4 Preludes Op.33 [4:11]
Poème tragique Op.34 [3:06]
3 Preludes Op.35 [4:19]
total time: 76:41
Disc 6
Poème satanique Op.36 5:44
4 Preludes Op.37 [6:33]
Valse Op.38 [5:35]
4 Preludes Op.39 [4:57]
2 Mazurkas Op.40 [4:07]
Poème Op.41 [5:01]
8 Etudes Op.42 [14:36]
2 Poèmes Op.44 [2:17]
3 Morceaux Op.45 [2:32]
Scherzo Op.46 [1:17]
Quasi-Valse Op.47[1:20]
4 Preludes Op.48 [3:47]
3 Morceaux Op.49 [2:32]
4 Morceaux Op.51 [6:45]
3 Morceaux Op.52 [3:31]
Piano Sonata No.5 Op.53 [10:50]
total time: 83:04
Disc 7
4 Pieces Op.56 [4:51]
2 Pieces Op.57 [2:33]
Feuillet d'album Op.58 [1:23]
2 Pieces Op.59 [3:52]
Poème-nocturne Op.61 [8:19]
Piano Sonata No.6 Op.62 [11:28]
2 Poèmes Op.63 [2:30]
Piano Sonata No. 7 'White Mass' Op.64 [10:46]
3 Etudes Op.65 [6:18]
total time: 52:00
Disc No 8
Piano Sonata No.8 Op.66 [13:16]
2 Preludes Op.67 [2:43]
Piano Sonata No.9 Op.68 'Black Mass' [8:36]
2 Poèmes Op.69 2:56]
Piano Sonata No.10 Op.70 12:10
2 Poèmes Op.71 [3:40]
Vers la flamme Op.72 [5:02]
2 Danses Op.73 [5:48]
5 Preludes Op.74 [4:56]
total time: 59:07
Disc 9
Canon in D minor WoO1 [1:46]
Romance in F sharp major for voice & piano WoO2 [1:25]
Nocturne in A flat major WoO3 [3:32]
Scherzo in E flat major WoO4 [2:01]
Scherzo in A flat major WoO5 [2:09]
Sonate-fantasie in G sharp minor WoO6 [8:07]
Valse in G sharp minor WoO7 [2:45]
Valse in D flat major WoO8 [2:12]
Variations in F minor on a theme by Mlle Egoroff WoO9 5:06]
Duett in D minor WoO10 [3:42]
Fugue in F minor WoO12 [4:27]
Fugue in D minor WoO13 [3:09]
Mazurka in B minor WoO14 [1:46]
Mazurka in B minor WoO15 [2:03]
Mazurka in F major WoO16 [2:28]
Feulliet d'album de Monighetti in A flat major WoO17 [0:53]
Fantasy in A minor WoO18 [6:27]
Sonata in E flat minor WoO19 [18:51]
Fugue in E minor WoO20 [2:42]
Romance in A minor for horn and piano WoO21 [2:13]
Feuillet d'album in F sharp major WoO25 [0:49]
Klavierstucke in B flat minor Anh.16 [3:07]
total time: 81:30
Disc 10
Variations on a Russian Theme for String Quartet [10:17] by:
Nikolai Artsibushev (1858-19370 / Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) Allegretto
-WoO23 / Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) / Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
/ Anatoly Liadov (1855-1914) / Jāzeps Vitols (1863-1948) / Felix Blumenfeld
(1863-1931) / Victor Ewald (1860-1935) / Alexander Winkler (1865-1935) / Nikolai
Sokolov (1859-1922)
Andante And Scherzo for Strings Anh.18 & 20 [5:40]
Symphonic Poem in D minor WoO24 [15:33]
Piano Concerto in F sharp minor Op.20 [27:12]
Reverie Op.24 [4:10]
total time: 64:42
Disc 11
Symphony No.1 in E major Op.26 [46:49]
Disc 12
Symphony No.2 in C minor Op.29 [47:41]
Disc 13
Symphony No.3 in C minor Op.43 'Le Divin Poème' [46:44]
Disc 14
Le Poème de l'extase Op.54 [20:26]
Promethée: Le Poème du feu Op.60 [22:43]
total time: [43:09]
Disc 15
Nuances - ballet on late piano works orch. Alexander Nemtin (1936-1999)
[30:12]
Preparation for the Final Mystery realised by Alexander Nemtin (1936-1999):
Part I - Universe [41:51]
total time: [72:11]
Disc 16
Preparation for the Final Mystery realised by Alexander Nemtin (1936-1999)
Part II - Mankind [52:03]
Disc 17
Preparation for the Final Mystery realised by Alexander Nemtin (1936-1999)
Part III - Transfiguration [65:51]
Disc 18
Scriabin across the generations
Etude in C sharp minor Op.2 No.1 [2:58]
Etude in D sharp minor Op.8 No.12 [2:14]
Prelude in D major Op.11 No.5 [1:52]
Vers la flamme Op.72 [6:47]
Poème in F sharp minor Op.32 No.1 [3:27]
Etude in C sharp minor Op.42 No.5 3:34]
4 Morceaux Op.51 [7:27]
3 Mazurkas from Op.3 Nos. 4, 6 & 9 [9:00]
Piano Sonata in G sharp minor Op.19 'Sonate-fantasie' [10:31]
total time: [47:50]
Vladimir Ashkenazy: Op.2 No.1, Op.6, Op.20, Op.22, Op.23, Op.30, Op.32, Op.42,
Op.45, Op.47, Op.51, Op.52, Op.56-8, Op.62-64, Op.66, Op.69, Op.70-72, Op.74,
WoO18 (with Vovka Ashkenazy)
Gordon Fergus-Thompson: Op.3, Op.5, Op.7-8, Op.10-11, Op.13, Op.15-17, Op.25,
Op.27, Op.31, Op.33, Op.35, Op.37, Op.39, Op.40, Op.48, Op.49 No.2, Op.59
No.2, Op.67
Valentina Lisitsa: Op.1, Op.2 Nos. 2&3, Op.4, Op.8 No.12 (alternative
version), Op.9, Op.12, Op.14, Op.18, Op.21, Op.36, Op.41, Op.46, Op.49 No.1,
Op.59 No.1, Op.65, WoO 2-5, 7-10, 12-16, 20,21,25, Klavierstuck
Ivo Pogorelich: Op.19
Sviatoslav Richter: Op.28, Op.53, Op.61, Op.72 (disc 18), Op.73
Jean Louis Steuermann: Op.34, Op.44
Benjamin Grosvenor: Op.38, Op.3 Nos. 4, 6 & 9 (disc 18)
Anna Gourari: Op.49 No.3, WoO1, WoO9
Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Op.68
Robert Szidon: WoO6, WoO19
Vladimir Horowitz: Op.2 No.1, Op.8 No12 (disc 18)
Shura Cherkassky: Op.11 (disc 18)
Mikhail Pletnev: Op.32 No.1 (disc 18)
Yevgeny Kissin: Op.42 No.5, Op.51 (disc 18)
Daniil Trifonov: Op.19 (disc 18)
Anush Hovhannisyan (soprano): WoO2, WoO10
Richard Watkins (horn): WoO21
Kuss Quartet: Variations
Hamburg Strings: Anh. 18 & 20
Igor Golovchin (conductor), Moscow SO: WoO24
Lorin Maazel (conductor), London Philharmonic Orchestra: Op.20
Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor), Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin: Op.24
Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin: Op.26,
Op.43, Nuances, Mysterium
Brigitte Baileys (soprano), Sergei Larin (tenor), Rundfunkchor Berlin: Op.26
Eliahu Inbal (conductor), Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Frankfurt: Op.29
Valery Gergiev (conductor), Kirov Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre: Op.54, Op.60
Alexander Toradze (piano), Kirov Chorus: Op.60
Alexander Ghindin (piano): Nuances
Alexei Lubimov (piano), Thomas Trotter (organ), Anna-Kristiina Kaappola (soprano),
Ernst Senff Chor, St. Petersburg Chamber Choir: Mysterium
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