Week 4 - Scriabin: Piano Preludes part I

What a modern miracle is technology! Sitting in my car outside a public library with my laptop connected to their Wi-Fi I just finished listening, on Spotify, to Mikhail Pletnev playing the 24 Preludes Op. 11 (1888 - 1896) of Alexander Scriabin (1872 - 1915) . What exquisite miniatures these are! They follow the same key structure as Chopin's 24 preludes (major key, then relative minor, then around the circle of fifths) but by and large are much shorter in duration. Whereas some of Chopin's preludes can stand on their own as individual works I felt that these preludes could not, and needed to be played as a group to be really appreciated. They are like 24 superlative pencil sketches that taken as a whole make up a wonderful work of art. While listening I was struck by how close some of the preludes were to the world of Chopin and Schumann while others where akin to the impressionism of early Debussy, all the while throwing in the distinctive harmonies that identify the music as coming out of Russia.

Yesterday I listened to two other preludes, Op.2 No.2 in B Major, and Op.9 No.1 in C sharp minor for left hand. The Op.2 No.2 is short with a gentle character and would be a great mystery piece for a 'Who's the Composer' game; my money would be on a lot of people thinking it was Schumann: no hints of Russia to my ears. The beautiful left hand prelude gives the illusion of two hands being used as there are three distinct events happening throughout; a melodic line, chordal accompaniment and a bass line. The pianist for these two preludes was Evgeny Zafariants on Naxos.

I then began listening to the Op. 11 preludes, comparing Zafariant's recording to Pletnev's and very quickly realized that Pletnev's way of phrasing, using rubato, pedal use, and dynamic voicing made the music come alive in a way that Zafariant's more restrained accounts did not. I find it continually fascinating that the printed music can be realized so differently from artist to artist. I dipped into other pianists for the first 3 preludes; Arthur Pizzaro, Elena Kuschnerova, and Niklas Sivelov. Sivelov tempos were extreme: Pizzaro, who I've heard live and enjoyed, was too fragmented with the line of the first prelude; Kuschnerova's playing, on the other hand, is something I will give another listen to.

I plan on listening to the rest of the preludes (there are a lot!). He wrote them throughout his life and listening to them will reveal his musical evolution.