Bartje Bartmans | Alexander Scriabin - Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 66 (1913) {Roberto Szidon} @bartjebartmans | Uploaded February 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 week ago.
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin; Russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин 6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. In his early years he was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin, and wrote works in a relatively tonal, late Romantic idiom. Later, and independently of his highly influential contemporary, Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a substantially atonal and much more dissonant musical language, which accorded with his personal brand of mysticism. Scriabin was influenced by synesthesia, and associated colors with the various harmonic tones of his atonal scale, while his color-coded circle of fifths was also influenced by theosophy. He is considered by some to be the main Russian Symbolist composer.
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Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 66 (1913)
1. Lento - Allegro agitato
Roberto Szidon, piano
The eighth sonata consists of a single movement, and performances range from 10 minutes (Michael Ponti) to 18 1/2 minutes (Vladimir Stoupel).
This work is regarded as one of Scriabin's most difficult pieces. It is the longest of Scriabin's sonatas by pages, and many passages are written on three and four staves to a system, as opposed to the typical two staves, to accommodate the complex counterpoint and large intervallic spaces. The character of the eighth sonata is perhaps consciously less extreme than that of the Sixth and Seventh, with fewer aggressive dissonances than the former and climaxes that do not explode with the extreme reckless energy of the latter.
The eighth sonata begins with almost disquieting placidity as a series of muted bell-like chords are sounded. This languid episode deciduates quite quickly into passages of agitated energy. There are none of the characteristic instructions common in Scriabin's other late sonatas. The furthest he goes is the word "Tragique" to indicate moments of distressed apathy and futility. In other respects, this is one of Scriabin's more formally experimental sonatas. It is rather episodic, with passages appearing at times to be sewn together almost arbitrarily, like the "presto" section which begins with staccato chords 'bouncing away' from the previous theme. There are definite moments of serenity (indeed this is the prevailing mood of the sonata), but a large portion of the music seems urgent and fervid. The composer Boris Asafiev argued that the themes in the piece represent natural elements.
Like his sixth sonata, Scriabin never performed this sonata in public. He considered parts of it "the most tragic episode of my creative work", and described its harmony as "drawn from nature, as if it had existed before". Stravinsky described the piece as "incomparable."
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin; Russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин 6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. In his early years he was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin, and wrote works in a relatively tonal, late Romantic idiom. Later, and independently of his highly influential contemporary, Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a substantially atonal and much more dissonant musical language, which accorded with his personal brand of mysticism. Scriabin was influenced by synesthesia, and associated colors with the various harmonic tones of his atonal scale, while his color-coded circle of fifths was also influenced by theosophy. He is considered by some to be the main Russian Symbolist composer.
Please support my channel:
ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans
Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 66 (1913)
1. Lento - Allegro agitato
Roberto Szidon, piano
The eighth sonata consists of a single movement, and performances range from 10 minutes (Michael Ponti) to 18 1/2 minutes (Vladimir Stoupel).
This work is regarded as one of Scriabin's most difficult pieces. It is the longest of Scriabin's sonatas by pages, and many passages are written on three and four staves to a system, as opposed to the typical two staves, to accommodate the complex counterpoint and large intervallic spaces. The character of the eighth sonata is perhaps consciously less extreme than that of the Sixth and Seventh, with fewer aggressive dissonances than the former and climaxes that do not explode with the extreme reckless energy of the latter.
The eighth sonata begins with almost disquieting placidity as a series of muted bell-like chords are sounded. This languid episode deciduates quite quickly into passages of agitated energy. There are none of the characteristic instructions common in Scriabin's other late sonatas. The furthest he goes is the word "Tragique" to indicate moments of distressed apathy and futility. In other respects, this is one of Scriabin's more formally experimental sonatas. It is rather episodic, with passages appearing at times to be sewn together almost arbitrarily, like the "presto" section which begins with staccato chords 'bouncing away' from the previous theme. There are definite moments of serenity (indeed this is the prevailing mood of the sonata), but a large portion of the music seems urgent and fervid. The composer Boris Asafiev argued that the themes in the piece represent natural elements.
Like his sixth sonata, Scriabin never performed this sonata in public. He considered parts of it "the most tragic episode of my creative work", and described its harmony as "drawn from nature, as if it had existed before". Stravinsky described the piece as "incomparable."
