Leonid Sabaneyev's music, like that of his contemporaries, was influenced by the mystical, ecstatic, and brooding Symbolism prevalent in early 20th-century Russian literary and artistic circles.
Composition History
The music on this album was written between 1902 and 1915, a period in Russia characterized by a prodigious output of piano miniatures, before a shift towards single-movement piano sonatas.
Composer Biography
Leonid Sabaneyev, the composer on this album, was a polymath who published works on zoology and mathematics, and also studied music with notable teachers like Taneyev and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Compositional Technique
Sabaneyev's piano writing, influenced by Skryabin, often uses the anacrusis as a motif, constructs melodies from small cells, and employs the full range of the keyboard with rich harmonies and dynamic contrasts.
Compositional Technique
Sabaneyev's Sonata, Op. 15, is a tribute to Skryabin, incorporating musical and literary quotations from Skryabin's unfinished 'Acte préalable', a vast synaesthetic work intended for the Himalayas.
Composer Biography
Leonid Sabaneyev was part of the intimate circle around Alexander Skryabin, a prominent Russian composer, from 1910 until Skryabin's death in 1915, and was initiated into Skryabin's musical and theosophical ideas.
Critical Reception
Leonid Sabaneyev famously published a review of Sergey Prokofiev's Scythian Suite, bemoaning its 'barbaric music', even though the concert had been cancelled and he had not heard the performance.
