Peter Donohoe - Scriabin: The Complete Piano Sonatas '2017

Tracks list

Tracklist
---------
CD1
01. Piano Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 6: I. Allegro con fuoco
02. Piano Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 6: II. [Andante]
03. Piano Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 6: III. Presto
04. Piano Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 6: IV. Funebre
05. Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19 Sonata-Fantasy: I. Andante
06. Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19 Sonata-Fantasy: II. Presto
07. Piano Sonata No. 3 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 23: I. Drammatico
08. Piano Sonata No. 3 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 23: II. Allegretto
09. Piano Sonata No. 3 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 23: III. Andante
10. Piano Sonata No. 3 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 23: IV. Presto con fuoco
11. Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 30: I. Andante
12. Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 30: II. Prestissimo volando
13. Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53

CD2
01. Piano Sonata No. 6 in G Major, Op. 62
02. Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64, White Mass
03. Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Major, Op. 66
04. Piano Sonata No. 9 in F Major, Op. 68, Black Mass
05. Piano Sonata No. 10 in C Major, Op. 70
06. Vers la flamme, Op. 72

This month’s SOMM release will no doubt be a special treat for the many
fans of Peter Donohoe’s recordings: a two-CD slimline set of
Scriabin’s Ten Piano Sonatas, ending with Vers la Flamme Op. 72, one of
his last pieces for piano, written in 1914.

Russia produced three renowned composer-pianists at the end of the nineteenth
century: Medtner, Rachmaninov, and his fellow student at the Moscow
Conservatoire, Alexander Scriabin, a unique figure in Russian music as he seemed
to follow a musical path all his own, completely different to that of either of
his contemporaries. He created an original, exotic soundworld which progressed
from Chopinesque romanticism in the First Sonata to a world of fantasy,
inhabited by uncompromising, audacious dissonances in the later Sonatas which
make overwhelming demands on any performer who dares to tackle them.

In his third Sonata Scriabin provided descriptions of the four movements under
the heading ‘States of the Soul’. In the Fourth he experimented
with Wagner’s Tristan harmonies. By the Sixth Sonata Scriabin’s
harmonic tonality had completely broken down and dissipated –
“frightening…dark and mysterious, impure, dangerous” as he
himself wrote. The Seventh Sonata (White Mass) instructs the performer to play
‘with a heavenly voluptuousness’, ‘with a dark
majesty’… Through the music he wanted to express an ecstatic
disorder creating a trance-like effect on performer and audience. The Ninth
(Black Mass) represents the Satanic but the Tenth has an opening marked
‘very sweetly and pure’. He said of this, ‘My Tenth Sonata is
a sonata of insects. Insects are born from the sun, they are the kisses of the
sun.’

Related artists