# Piano Concerto (Scriabin)

The Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Op. 20, is an early work of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915). Written in 1896, when he was 24, it was his first work for orchestra and the only concerto he composed. Scriabin completed the concerto in only a few days in the fall of 1896, but did not finish the orchestration until the following May (and only after constant urging by his publisher and patron Mitrofan Belyayev). Belyayev paid the composer 600 rubles (roughly $10,000 in current USD); it premiered in October 1897 and was finally published in 1898.

## Instrumentation

The concerto is scored for 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, strings, and solo piano.

## Composition

The work consists of three movements, typically lasting about 28 minutes in total:
* Allegro
    The main theme is introduced by the piano and then transferred to the orchestra while the piano accompanies in octaves.
* Andante
    The second movement begins in the key of F-sharp major which was for Scriabin "a ‘bright blue’ mystic key". It is in the form of theme and variations. The orchestra introduces the theme. The piano enters with the first variation, accompanying the orchestra's theme with arpeggios. The second variation is faster, marked allegro scherzando. The third variation is a slow funeral march. The fourth variation is marked allegretto and features intricate ornamentation; the clarinet introduces the melody, and interweaves counterpoint with the soloist. The movement ends with return of the theme to the orchestra, almost identical to the first variation.
* Allegro moderato A second, more lyrical theme then comes in A major before returning to the original F# minor theme, which is soon developed vigorously. After a climax occurs where the first theme is presented yet again, the second theme comes back, this time in F# major. After some short final thoughts, where there's a modulation to A minor, the key returns to F# major for a brief, but triumphant and emphatic coda, ending in 3 loud F# major chords.
    This movement also develops material from the first movement. The first theme is condensed into the first two bars followed by a virtuosic arpeggio.

## Recordings

| Pianist | Orchestra | Conductor | Record Company | Year of Recording | Format |
| Heinrich Neuhaus | All-Union Radio Orchestra | Nikolai Golovanov | Russian Disc | 1946 | CD |
| Solomon | Philharmonia Orchestra | Issay Dobrowen | EMI | 1949 | CD |
| Samuil Feinberg | USSR State TV and Radio Symphony Orchestra | Alexander Gauk | Brilliant Classics | 1950 | CD |
| Paul Badura-Skoda | Wiener Symphoniker | Henry Swoboda | Deutsche Grammophon | 1951 | CD |
| Friedrich Wührer | Pro Musica Orchester Wien | Hans Swarowsky | Vox Records | 1954 | Vinyl |
| Dmitri Bashkirov | USSR State Radio Orchestra | Kiril Kondrashin | Artia Recording Corporation | 1960 | CD |
| Stanislav Neuhaus | USSR Symphony Orchestra | Victor Dubrovsky | Melodiya | 1965 | Vinyl |
| Gennady Cherkasov | Moscow Symphony Orchestra | Alexei Cherkasov | Melodiya | | Vinyl |
| Michael Ponti | Hamburg Symphony Orchestra | Hans Drewanz | Turnabout | 1970 | CD |
| Vladimir Ashkenazy | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Lorin Maazel | Decca | 1971 | CD |
| Igor Zhukov | Estonian State Symphony Orchestra | Neeme Järvi | Melodiya | 1978 | Vinyl |
| Garrick Ohlsson | Czech Philharmonic Orchestra | Libor Pešek | Supraphon | 1987 | CD |
| Abbott Ruskin | MIT Symphony Orchestra | David Epstein | Pantheon | 1987 | CD |
| Roland Pöntinen | Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra | Leif Segerstam | BIS Records | 1989 | CD |
| Aleksey Nasedkin | USSR State Symphony Orchestra | Evgeny Svetlanov | Melodiya | 1990 | CD |
| Alexei Golovin | Moscow Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Ponkin | Le Chant du Monde | 1990 | CD |
| Nikolai Demidenko | BBC Symphony Orchestra | Alexander Lazarev | Hyperion Records | 1993 | CD |
| Gerhard Oppitz | Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra | Dmitri Kitaenko | RCA | 1993 | CD |
| Evelyne Dubourg | Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra | Nicholas Uljanov | Tudor Records | 1993 | CD |
| Karl-Andreas Kolly | Symphony Orchestra Basel | Armin Jordan | Pan Classics | 1995 | CD |
| Elena Kuznetsova | Russian State Symphony Orchestra | Ivan Shpiller | Triton | 1995 | CD |
| Claire Désert | Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg | Theodor Guschlbauer | Aria Music | 1995 | CD |
| Mee-Hyun Ahn | The Moscow Orchestra | Mikael Avetisyan | Classical Assembly | 1996 | CD |
| Evgeni Mikhailov | State Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Ponkin | Vista Vera | 1996 | CD |
| Michael Ponti | Philharmonisches Orchester des Vogtland Theaters Plauen | Paul Theissen | Dante | 1996 | CD |
| Konstantin Scherbakov | Moscow Symphony Orchestra | Igor Golovchin | Naxos Records | 1996 | CD |
| Arkady Sevidov | Russian Philharmonic Orchestra | Konstantin Krimets | Arte Nova | 1996 | CD |
| Peter Jablonski | Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin | Vladimir Ashkenazy | Decca | 1996 | CD |
| Anatol Ugorski | Chicago Symphony Orchestra | Pierre Boulez | Deutsche Grammophon | 1996 | CD |
| Viktoria Postnikova | Residentie Orchestra (The Hague) | Gennady Rozhdestvensky | Chandos | 1998 | CD |
| Artur Pizarro | North German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra | Martyn Brabbins | Collins Classics | 1998 | CD |
| Roger Woodward | Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Edo de Waart | ABC Classics | 1999 | CD |
| Claudio Crismani | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Thomas Sanderling | Real Sound | 2001 | CD |
| Aleksey Nasedkin | Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Fedoseyev | Vista Vera | 2005 | CD |
| Andrei Korobeinikov | Academic Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg Philharmony | Mikhail Snitko | Olympia Records | 2006 | CD |
| Nikita Fitenko | Russian Philharmonic Orchestra | Marlan Carlson | Classical Records | 2007 | CD |
| Pavlina Dokovska | Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra | Vladimir Ghiaurov | Gega New | 2007 | CD |
| Oleg Marshev | South Jutland Symphony Orchestra | Vladimir Ziva | Danacord | 2008 | CD |
| Yevgeny Sudbin | Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra | Andrew Litton | BIS Records | 2013 | SACD |
| Kirill Gerstein | Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra | Vasily Petrenko | Lawo Classics | 2017 | CD |
| Xiayin Wang | Royal Scottish National Orchestra | Peter Oundjian | Chandos | 2018 | SACD |
| Daniil Trifonov | Mariinsky Orchestra | Valery Gergiev | Deutsche Grammophon | 2020 | CD |
| Jean-Philippe Collard | Bilkent Symphony Orchestra | Emil Tabakov | La Dolce Volta | 2021 | CD |