Alexander Scriabin - Complete Piano Sonatas (Marc-André Hamelin)

Information

Composer: Alexander Scriabin

CD1:

1. Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 6: I. Allegro con fuocoso
2. Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 6: II. [crotchet = 40]
3. Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 6: III. Presto
4. Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 6: IV. Funèbre
5. Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor "Sonata-Fantasy", Op. 19: I. Andante
6. Piano Sonata No. 2 in G sharp minor "Sonata-Fantasy", Op. 19: II. Presto
7. Piano Sonata No. 3 in F sharp minor, Op. 23: I. Drammatico
8. Piano Sonata No. 3 in F sharp minor, Op. 23: II. Allegretto
9. 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. Fantaisie, Op. 28
12. Piano Sonata No. 4 in F sharp major, Op. 30: I. Andante
13. Piano Sonata No. 4 in F sharp major, Op. 30: II. Prestissimo volando

CD2:

1. Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53
2. Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 62
3. Piano Sonata No. 7 "Messe Blanche", Op. 64
4. Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 66
5. Piano Sonata No. 9 "Messe Noire", Op. 68
6. Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70
7. Sonate-Fantaisie in G sharp minor, Op. posth.

Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Date: 1995
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67131/2

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Review

PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

Along with Robert Szidon (mid-price DG, but on three discs), Marc-André Hamelin’s complete Scriabin sonata collection is the most complete available (Ashkenazy on Decca and Taub on Harmonia Mundi omit the Fantaisies), though it inexplicably places the early Sonate-Fantaisie at the very end of an otherwise chronological survey. Yet Scriabin’s ten sonatas, despite their modest length individually, are hardly a cycle of works to listen to from beginning to end, with their intense exploration of heightened emotion and their other-worldly theosophical associations. Marc-André Hamelin rises to the challenges of this music with complete mastery. But his is more than a purely technical triumph (though the effortlessness of his playing has to be heard to be believed). Whether in the almost Brahmsian writing of Sonata No. 1, the heroicism of Nos 4 and 5, or in the visionary sound-world of No. 10, Hamelin draws the listener in through his acute shaping of every phrase and by achieving that almost impossible balance between languid, static ecstasy and momentous energy that characterises Scriabin’s mature music. Hyperion’s recorded sound is typically clean and warm.

-- Matthew Rye, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/scriabin-complete-piano-sonatas
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/June/Scriabin_sonatas_CDA67131.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Sonatas-Alexander-Nikolayevich-Scriabin/dp/B00000300U

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Alexander Scriabin (6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. Scriabin was one of the most innovative and most controversial of early modern composers, and is considered by some to be the main Russian Symbolist composer. Independently of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a substantially atonal and much more dissonant musical system. He was influenced by synesthesia, and associated colours with the various harmonic tones of his atonal scale. Scriabin had a major impact on the music world, and influenced composers such as Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Scriabin

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Marc-André Hamelin (born September 5, 1961 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer. Hamelin is recognized worldwide for the originality and technical brilliance of his performances of the classic repertoire. He has made recordings of a wide variety of composers with the Hyperion label. He is well known for his attention to lesser-known composers especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and for performing works by pianist-composers. Hamelin has also composed several works, including a set of piano études in all of the minor keys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc-Andr%C3%A9_Hamelin

http://www.marcandrehamelin.com/

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