Scriabin: Piano Music, Vol. 2

Featuring

Soyeon Kate Lee
Alexander Scriabin

Did you know?

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Composition History

Scriabin once failed to recognize his own Fantaisie in B minor, Op. 28, when his friend Leonid Sabaneev played it, asking, 'Who wrote that? It sounds a bit familiar.'

Composer Biography

Scriabin, though formally educated at a Moscow cadet school, pursued music studies in piano and composition alongside his officer training.

Performer Biography

Soyeon Kate Lee, the pianist on this album, is a first prize winner of the 2010 Naumburg International Piano Competition and the 2004 Concert Artist Guild International Competition.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Scriabin's old colleague Leonid Sabaneev believed Scriabin's smaller piano pieces deserved a permanent place in the musical repertory, anticipating a future revaluation and revival.

Compositional Technique

Scriabin condensed an early un-numbered piano sonata in E flat minor into the single-movement Allegro appassionato, Op. 4, tightening his compositional style and adding a virtuosic section.

Composition History

Scriabin's Fugue in E minor, often a textbook example of 'correct' fugal writing, exists because he only wrote one fugue for a summer assignment, while his teacher Anton Arensky had requested ten.

Composer Biography

Scriabin was affectionately nicknamed 'Scriabushka' due to his diminutive stature by Nikolai Zverev, his piano teacher, who hosted regular Sunday soirées for Moscow's intellectuals.