1978 LP text:
The work of Alexander Scriabin is one of the most vivid and unique phenomena in Russian and world artistic culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A bold innovator, a "solitary genius," as Sergei Prokofiev described him, Scriabin brought new ideas and themes into art, sometimes baffling his contemporaries with the unusualness and grandeur of his designs and the complexity of his language. He created his own distinctive system of images and his uniquely individual style, by which Scriabin's music is easily recognized even by less experienced listeners.
Scriabin was an excellent pianist, and many features of his performing style – the nervous excitement, the flexible nuances, the elusive changes in tempo and rhythm, the subtlest gradations of sound – found direct reflection in his piano compositions. At the same time, his piano works reveal the rich and multifaceted world of Scriabin's musical imagery in all its fullness. There is a range of lyricism – from gentle dreaminess to intense dramatic tension, from bright contemplation to intoxicating ecstatic exaltation. There are also the characteristic images of longing, rapid flight, swirling, somewhat whimsical dance-like movements, and finally, the powerful affirmation of a heroic principle. All of these found expression in numerous preludes, études, and poems, as well as in more substantial works, with the 10 sonatas holding a significant place among them.
The first three sonatas were written in the 1890s, during Scriabin's formative years. This period in Scriabin's music is marked by pronounced romantic tendencies and a notable closeness to the traditions of Chopin, and to some extent, Schumann and Liszt.
After the third sonata, Scriabin's work entered a new phase. The composer sought to express philosophical ideas in music, related to the psychology of creativity. Viewing art as an almost magical force capable of transforming the world and seeing the artist-creator as a chosen prophet of this force, Scriabin set himself the task of depicting the very process of creativity in music. In a generalized and somewhat schematic form, he envisioned it as a series of stages in the development of the "creative spirit" – from vague longing and the birth of an unclear dream, through active striving and struggle, to complete freedom, proud self-affirmation, and intoxicating ecstasy.
The realization of this idea required new expressive means. Scriabin turned to the orchestra, producing three symphonies in succession, with the third ("The Divine Poem") most fully reflecting the major trends of this period. The work on the symphony also inspired a large group of piano pieces (over forty in the single year of 1903).
The Fifth Sonata (Op. 53, 1907) was written by Scriabin during his stay in Lausanne, Switzerland. Like all subsequent sonatas, it is in one movement. The composer prefaced the sonata with an epigraph taken from his own "Poem of Ecstasy," a long poetic work that served as a program for the symphonic poem of the same name:
The imagery in the sonata evolves from the dreamy, languorous introductory theme to the swift Presto with its soaring main theme and exquisite, spicy secondary theme, and then to the sparkling, exalted climax at the end. The movement of the music is often "interrupted" by sudden, thunderous or commandingly imperative exclamations, sharp tempo changes, and sudden dynamic contrasts. The role of individual details, timbral colors, and subtle sound relationships is greatly increased. Many of them are provided with expressive remarks by the composer. For instance, the initial episode of the sonata, marked "con estravaganza" (with extravagance), is particularly interesting: out of the dark, muffled rumble of the bass, a whole firework of rapidly ascending passages suddenly bursts forth. This whirlwind also sweeps through the very end of the piece, cutting off on a sharply unstable sound and leaving a sense of incompleteness. Sergei Taneyev noted that "the sonata does not end, it ceases."
The last five sonatas form a fairly close group, written almost simultaneously (in 1911–1913), and they fully reveal the major ideas, images, and musical-stylistic features of Scriabin's late work. After creating the symphonic poem "Prometheus" (1910), all of the composer's creative aspirations were connected with the realization of a concept that had entered his life much earlier. As early as the beginning of the 1900s, a fantastic and at the same time grandiose idea of the "Mysterium" began to take shape in Scriabin's mind – a kind of liturgical mystical action in which all of humanity would participate. The final stage of the "Mysterium" was to be "dematerialization" – the merging, dissolving of the material-sensory principle into the spiritual, achieved through "dance" and "ecstasy." Although Scriabin infinitely believed in his dream, he himself felt its impossibility. Nevertheless, most of his major late works, including "Prometheus" and a number of sonatas, were created as approaches to the "Mysterium," partial and sketch-like embodiments of it.
The language and imagery of the late sonatas are characterized by great complexity and some encryption. Scriabin seems to strive to penetrate into the realm of the subconscious, to convey unusual states of the psyche with music, extreme in their subtlety or primal agitation, to capture sudden sensations and their whimsical changes in sound. These "captured moments" give life to a long series of short thematic symbols, which form the fabric of the composition. Often, a single chord, a two- or three-note intonation, or a fleeting passage acquires independent symbolic meaning.
Particularly prominent in the late sonatas are the symbolic images of unaccountable longing, enticing dreams, winged flight, willful imperative impulses, ecstatic dance, and radiant brilliance. In their whimsical alternation, a general tendency toward a gradual increase in emotional tension from beginning to end is evident.
For example, in the Sixth Sonata (Op. 62, 1911–1912), at the very beginning (and in the main theme), two spheres of imagery are juxtaposed. To the mysterious, gloomy sounds, on which short ascending motifs "erupt" like splashes, is contrasted a languid, tense melody. Scriabin defines its character with a series of remarks: "with restrained fire," "mysterious breath," "caressing wave." From the intonations of this theme is born the crystal-clear, tender secondary theme ("a dream taking shape"), followed by the images of flight and whirling motion (the closing theme). The further development of these themes, repeatedly interrupted by "mysterious calls" and loud exclamations, leads to the final climax, where, according to Scriabin, "sudden horror invades the mad dance."
The Eighth Sonata (Op. 66, 1912–1913) was completed after the 9th and 10th. Unlike the preceding Sixth and Seventh Sonatas, it is distinguished by relatively calm development. It lacks the sharp contrasts, sudden intrusions, ominous cries, and ecstatically tense climaxes of its predecessors. Of course, in the Eighth Sonata, the listener will easily recognize the characteristic Scriabinesque themes of willful drive and detached dreaminess, the trills dissolving in the high register, and the swift dance at the end. But here, these images do not possess the degree of programmatic specificity and symbolism that they have in other sonatas. Notably, the composer almost entirely abandoned the use of remarks clarifying the meaning of each theme in the Eighth Sonata. The concept of the sonata seems to have shifted from the realm of programmatic to a more generalized, purely musical plan. The composition of the work is notable for its thoughtfulness and deep internal unity.
The slow, concentrated-static introduction that opens the sonata is a compressed intonational "summary" of the entire composition. In the complex, somewhat fluid polyphonic weave of voices, the most important elements of future themes stand out prominently. The expressive aching melody is answered in the upper register by a crystal-clear ascending motif and a muted two-note intonation in the bass. From this last grows the active, directed, very broadly developed main theme Allegro agitato. The two previous motifs give rise to the secondary theme. In the expanded central section (development), in addition to the marked themes, another one appears – a whimsical, sharp, scherzo-like theme. This forms the basis for the concluding swift dance of the sonata.
The Tenth Sonata (Op. 70, 1912–1913) is one of Scriabin's brightest works. According to the composer, he sought to convey in it a sense of joyful unity, merging with nature. For instance, regarding the slow introduction that opens the sonata, Scriabin said: "This is the forest, the sounds and moods of the forest." At the same time, the images of nature and pantheistic motifs in the Tenth Sonata are refracted through the prism of Scriabin's philosophical ideas, his concept of the dissolution of the physical, material principle into the spiritual. This is reflected in the characteristic gallery of symbolic images in Scriabin's late works: longing (the introduction), joyful elation (the main theme Allegro), and willful impulses (the secondary theme). The general plan of the sonata, aimed at a radiant, dazzling climax, is also quite typical. A huge role throughout the piece is played by the trembling sounds of trills, which the composer interpreted as an expression of the "dematerialization of sound." This same upward striving is reflected in the "dance" at the end, where, according to Scriabin, "the music becomes almost ethereal, leaving only dematerialized rhythm."
In the Tenth Sonata, compared to the previous ones, there is a trend towards simplicity and clarification of style. True, the musical language of the sonata remains quite complex, but thanks to the more economical use of expressive means and the more restrained, sometimes even austere texture, Scriabin achieves an amazing transparency of sound.
O. Stepanov
