Piano Concerto (Scriabin)

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Alexander Scriabin 1896

The Piano Concerto in F sharp minor op. 20 by Alexander Nikolajewitsch Skrjabin (1872–1915) composed in 1896/97 is the only solo concerto by the Russian composer.

Emergence

The piano concerto, conceived in autumn 1896 in a few days, but not orchestrated until 1897, is Scriabin's only solo concerto and also his first orchestral composition, apart from an allegro symphonic (without opus number) that was also begun in 1896 but was not completed . On May 31, 1897, the publisher and patron Mitrofan Belyayev confirmed to the composer in a letter that he would print the concerto in his publishing house, with a fee of 600 rubles. After reviewing the manuscript, Nikolai Rimski-Korssakow criticized weaknesses in the instrumentation, but made only a few corrections.

Cast and playing time

In addition to the solo piano, the score provides for the following scoring : flute piccolo , 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , timpani and strings .

The performance lasts about 27 to 28 minutes.

Characterization and sequence of sentences

The work, which is more lyrical and poetic than dramatic, makes high pianistic demands and its instrumentation is influenced by Chopin's piano concertos, but the orchestra is more involved in the development and interlocked with the solo part than in Chopin's concerts. A cyclical connection is created by a descending three-tone sequence (ed-cis) that already appears in the opening of the first movement, which also appears in the following movements (partly transposed). The piano concerto, which is clearly anchored in its tonality , does not yet reveal the atonal chord complexes in Scriabin's later works.

  • I ( Allegro ): After only a short orchestral introduction, voiced by the horn, the main theme sounds in the piano “as if improvising”. The movement follows the sonata form .
  • II ( Andante ): A song-like F sharp major theme performed by the muted strings is led through five variations , the last being a shortened repetition of the first. The third variation ("as if from an underground abyss") is reminiscent of a funeral march.
  • III ( Allegro moderato ): The main theme in the piano (“Every note very marked, like a trumpet”) of the movement, which is laid out as a sonata rondo , reminds in its rising gesture of the characteristic kind of thematic formations in Scriabin's later work. The main theme of the first movement is taken up in the coda.

World premiere and reception

The first performance of the piano concerto took place in Odessa on October 11, 1897 at a concert of the local section of the Russian Music Society under the direction of Vasily Safonov . The soloist was the composer himself. The first performance conductor also called the piano concerto “excellent” in a letter to the management the initially critical Rimsky-Korssakow conducted it several times and successfully in the following years. Scriabin also played the solo part repeatedly in later years, for example ten times in 1910 on a concert tour along the Volga.

In 1898 the work was published by the music publisher MP Belaieff as a score and in a version for two pianos, which his first wife, the pianist Vera Ivanovna Issakovich (married in 1897) had prepared and revised Scriabin.

Scriabin's piano concerto is performed comparatively rarely in the concert hall, but it has been made in a number of recordings, including with pianists such as Wladimir Aschkenasi , Michael Ponti , Gerhard Oppitz and Anatol Ugorski .

literature

  • Igor Fjodorowitsch Belsa: Alexander Nikolajewitsch Scriabin . Verlag Neue Musik, Berlin 1986. ISBN 3-7333-0006-8 , pp. 63ff.
  • Wulf Konold (Ed.): Lexicon Orchestermusik Romantik. SZ . Piper / Schott, Mainz 1989. ISBN 3-7957-8228-7 , pp. 863-865.
  • Sigfried Schibli: Alexander Scriabin and his music . Piper, Munich / Zurich 1983. ISBN 3-492-02759-8 , pp. 98ff.

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