Scriabin: The Complete Piano Sonatas

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[Peter Donohoe] finds a nobility in the First Sonata’s closing ‘Funebre’, bringing a curious reflective quality to its ‘Quasi niente’ central section. — BBC Music Magazine, April 2017, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Dec 2016
Catalogue No: SOMMCD262-2
Label: Somm
Length: 2 hours 20 minutes

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Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 6

Work length23:56

$5.00

$6.50

$8.75

Peter Donohoe

I. Allegro con fuoco

Track length9:13

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Lento

Track length5:01

$1.00

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$1.75

III. Presto

Track length3:13

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Funèbre

Track length6:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor, Op. 19 'Sonata Fantasy'

Work length12:09

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

Peter Donohoe

I. Andante

Track length8:13

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Presto

Track length3:56

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 3 in F sharp minor, Op. 23

Work length18:38

$4.00

$5.20

$7.00

Peter Donohoe

I. Drammatico

Track length6:48

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Allegretto

Track length2:24

$1.00

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$1.75

III. Andante

Track length4:01

$1.00

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IV. Presto con fuoco

Track length5:25

$1.00

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$1.75

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 4 in F sharp major, Op. 30

Work length7:39

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Peter Donohoe

I. Andante

Track length2:59

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Prestissimo volando

Track length4:40

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 5 in F sharp major, Op. 53

Work length12:05

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Peter Donohoe

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 62

Work length13:13

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Peter Donohoe

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64 "White Mass"

Work length11:47

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Peter Donohoe

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 66

Work length13:27

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Peter Donohoe

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 'Black Mass'

Work length7:52

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Peter Donohoe

Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70 "Insect"

Work length12:59

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Peter Donohoe

Scriabin: Vers la flamme, Op. 72

Work length6:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Peter Donohoe

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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.’

Reviews

April 2017

[Peter Donohoe] finds a nobility in the First Sonata’s closing ‘Funebre’, bringing a curious reflective quality to its ‘Quasi niente’ central section.

February 2017

It is a tribute to Donohoe's authority and experience that his Scriabin interpretations hold their own and have something to say in a crowded and competitive catalogue

8th January 2017

The single-movement No 5, with its magnesium flare of a beginning, is even the high point, for the remarkable yearning ecstasies of the later run, all too readily turning into trills, remain in productive tension with a firm architecture.

4th December 2016

Donohoe is a masterly guide, his playing both unearthly and earthy. With his visionary notions of creation and the cosmos, Scriabin can feel like too much of a good thing. Donohoe reins him in just enough, and makes a powerful case.

Musical Opinion January 2017

There are fine sets available of the ten piano sonatas of Alexander Scriabin , but none better than this. This is a most distinguished issue

Classical Ear December 2016

This rich, varied and often illuminating survey of the 10 piano sonatas…bears all the marks of the evangelicalism of the newly converted…all of the pieces benefit from an intelligent interrogation that encompasses the conventional and the idiosyncratic with an eloquence that binds both seamlessly together. Demanding but rewarding.

Scriabin: The Complete Piano Sonatas

2 CDs

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