This album was recorded live in DSD 128fs at the Barbican, London, with Symphony No 1 recorded on March 30, 2014, and Symphony No 2 on April 10, 2014.
Composer Biography
Scriabin, the composer, was a student of Nikolai Zverev, who also taught Rachmaninov, and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a gold medal in 1892.
Notable Performances
The premiere of Scriabin's First Symphony (without its finale) was conducted by Anatoly Lyadov in St Petersburg in 1900, and a complete performance followed in Moscow, conducted by Vasily Safonov, who introduced it as 'the new Bible'.
Compositional Technique
Scriabin's First Symphony has six movements, instead of the conventional four, and its finale features vocal soloists and a chorus.
Composition History
Mitrofan Belyayev, a wealthy merchant heir, supported Russian music and young composers, and became Scriabin's patron, publishing his music and encouraging his first large-scale work, the Piano Concerto.
Composer Biography
Alexander Scriabin, the composer, was born into an aristocratic family in Moscow, and his mother was a pianist who died when he was one year old.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Scriabin's later music was influenced by synaesthesia and mystic philosophies, leading him to create a color-coded circle of fifths and include a part for a 'colour organ' in his 'Prometheus' Symphony.
