A. Scriabin: Poems op. 69 no. 1 & 2 (Vladimir Sofronitsky)
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 Published On Apr 5, 2013

The great russian pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky performs Alexander Nikolaïevitch Scriabin's two poems op. 69. Even if the recording is of 1960, he made a very lively version of the first poem and the mood changes of the second one are stunning!
Enjoy this wonderful music! ;)

Description of the site "allmusic.com" for the two poems:

Alexander Scriabin completed his 2 Poems, Op. 69 for solo piano in 1913. Both movements are marked Allegretto, though the work is not noticeably fast. Among the composer's catalog is a recurring sense of the mystic, the colossal, and the ecstatic. This is one of the overall negative qualities of much of his work; the presumptive, messianic nature of his personality, and everything it influenced, made for an atmosphere of cultured hysteria. Writers who have bought into Scriabin's self-proclaimed, visionary stature write like pundits while the unconvinced avoid him completely. Among this divided state of affairs are some works that do not deserve to be caught up in this lopsided, unhelpful view of the composer. Op. 69 is an intriguing, murky piece of music, faintly reminiscent of Debussy. The technical challenges are not obvious, but this brief work, slightly less than four minutes in duration, requires astounding dexterity to give the score's poetry its due. Scriabin's merits are not accurately appreciated. He was a great pianist in spite of having tiny hands. He was an innovative, talented composer without university training and isolated in Russia. It is difficult to determine how his sound became non-Russian, explicitly cosmopolitan. The astounding nonsense that surrounds his legacy was generated by his Dali-like persona, overwhelming those who were receptive the his demonstration of "vision." This persona carried over into much of his music, creating an abrasive sound of transcendence toward some kind of spiritual plane. Occasionally, at the end of his career, this way of writing began to work well; it had been part of his life long enough that he was able to write with it as an honest point of departure. Other works, such as the Op. 69 seem to bypass the composer's persona completely, revealing an innovative, talented artist. The differences between the two movements are not great, each revealing a diminutive character. The first is pastoral and nocturnal concurrently, almost gothic in it sensuality, and in an unknowable state of repose. The second Allegretto is sprightly: extroverted, light, and graceful. In spite of the near-atonality of the music (whether or not Scriabin actually broke with tonality in the way Schoenberg did is of some debate) the sensibility of the music is clearly romantic, Wagnerian. The irony to this is that while "Wagnerian" normally denotes an excess of Romantic ambition, the Op. 69 is one of the only works by Scriabin to not aspire to a comparable largeness. It is small and charming, and the connection to Wagner is simply that the Op. 69 seems to take his character of language into the twentieth century, as a diminutive, eccentric Russian pianist who was sometimes capable of writing brilliant music hears it. It is a touching set of contrasts, slightly melancholic and vulnerable, a side of the composer that should have been heard more frequently.

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