Uploaded July 2009 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
I've been fascinated with Scriabin for a long time. Scriabin is a champion of miniature pieces, many of them having scores no longer than a single page. His early pieces are very accessible and romantic in nature (his early work is sometimes compared to Chopin). In his later pieces he develops a harmonic language of his own, going towards atonality. The prelude op 52 no 2 already leaves the traditional harmonies and hints at what is to follow. Some people consider Scriabin to be nothing but a mad man (it is known that he was not very psychologically stable). I (and many with me) think he was a genius. (Of course both things often go hand in hand ;-) )
Scriabin himself didn't like this piece at all. He refused to play it in public.
Much to my suprise I didn't find any other recording of this prelude on YouTube (yet). (Don't be fooled by that one link which actually plays another Scriabin prelude ;-) )
Some technical data:
The piano is a yamaha gt-2 digital grand piano. The sound is recorded using a boss br 600 multitrack recorder in dry recording mode. The video and sound are mixed using kdenlive on debian unstable linux. The video was shot using a panasonic SD20 camera in suboptimal lighting conditions. Both the video camera and the multitrack recorder can be mounted like usb sticks under linux and the data can be copied without problems.
I've been fascinated with Scriabin for a long time. Scriabin is a champion of miniature pieces, many of them having scores no longer than a single page. His early pieces are very accessible and romantic in nature (his early work is sometimes compared to Chopin). In his later pieces he develops a harmonic language of his own, going towards atonality. The prelude op 52 no 2 already leaves the traditional harmonies and hints at what is to follow. Some people consider Scriabin to be nothing but a mad man (it is known that he was not very psychologically stable). I (and many with me) think he was a genius. (Of course both things often go hand in hand ;-) )
Scriabin himself didn't like this piece at all. He refused to play it in public.
Much to my suprise I didn't find any other recording of this prelude on YouTube (yet). (Don't be fooled by that one link which actually plays another Scriabin prelude ;-) )
Some technical data:
The piano is a yamaha gt-2 digital grand piano. The sound is recorded using a boss br 600 multitrack recorder in dry recording mode. The video and sound are mixed using kdenlive on debian unstable linux. The video was shot using a panasonic SD20 camera in suboptimal lighting conditions. Both the video camera and the multitrack recorder can be mounted like usb sticks under linux and the data can be copied without problems.
