page_title: Alexander Scriabin
section_title: Recordings and performers
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Scriabin / Recordings and performers
caption_attribution_description: English: Autograph signature of Alexander Scriabin, from the manuscript of his "2 Poems" Op. 62. From http://imslp.org/wiki/2_Po%C3%A8mes%2C_Op.63_(Scriabin%2C_Aleksandr)
context_page_description: Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist. Scriabin, who was influenced early in his life by the works of Frédéric Chopin, composed works that are characterised by a highly tonal idiom. Later in his career, independently of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a substantially atonal and much more dissonant musical system, which accorded with his personal brand of mysticism. Scriabin was influenced by synesthesia, and associated colours with the various harmonic tones of his atonal scale, while his colour-coded circle of fifths was also influenced by theosophy. He is considered by some to be the main Russian Symbolist composer.
  Scriabin was one of the most innovative and most controversial of early modern composers. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia said of Scriabin that "no composer has had more scorn heaped on him or greater love bestowed." Leo Tolstoy described Scriabin's music as "a sincere expression of genius." Scriabin had a major impact on the music world over time, and influenced composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Karol Szymanowski.
context_section_description: Scriabin himself made recordings of 19 of his own works, using 20 piano rolls, six for the Welte-Mignon, and 14 for Ludwig Hupfeld of Leipzig. The Welte rolls were recorded during early February 1910, in Moscow, and have been replayed and published on CD. Those recorded for Hupfeld include the piano sonatas Op. 19 and 23. While this indirect evidence of Scriabin's pianism prompted a mixed critical reception, close analysis of the recordings within the context of the limitations of the particular piano roll technology can shed light on the free style that he favoured for the performance of his own works, characterized by extemporary variations in tempo, rhythm, articulation, dynamics, and sometimes even the notes themselves.
  Pianists who have performed Scriabin to particular critical acclaim include Vladimir Sofronitsky, Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter. Sofronitsky never met the composer, as his parents forbade him to attend a concert due to illness. The pianist said he never forgave them; but he did marry Scriabin's daughter Elena. According to Horowitz, when he played for the composer as an 11-year-old child, Scriabin responded enthusiastically and encouraged him to pursue a full musical and artistic education. When Sergei Rachmaninoff performed Scriabin's music his playing style was criticized by the composer and his admirers as being earthbound.
  Surveys of the solo piano works have been recorded by Gordon Fergus-Thompson, Pervez Mody, Maria Lettberg, and Michael Ponti. 
  The complete published sonatas have also been recorded by, among others, Dmitri Alexeev, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Håkon Austbø, Boris Berman, Bernd Glemser, Marc-André Hamelin, Yakov Kasman, Ruth Laredo, John Ogdon, Garrick Ohlsson, Roberto Szidon, Robert Taub, Anatol Ugorski, Mikhail Voskresensky, and Igor Zhukov.
  Other prominent performers of his piano music include Samuil Feinberg, Nikolai Demidenko, Marta Deyanova, Sergio Fiorentino, Andrei Gavrilov, Emil Gilels, Glenn Gould, Andrej Hoteev, Evgeny Kissin, Anton Kuerti, Elena Kuschnerova, Piers Lane, Eric Le Van, Alexander Melnikov, Stanislav Neuhaus, Artur Pizarro, Mikhail Pletnev, Jonathan Powell, Burkard Schliessmann, Grigory Sokolov, Alexander Satz, Yevgeny Sudbin, Matthijs Verschoor, Arcadi Volodos, Roger Woodward, Evgeny Zarafiants and Margarita Shevchenko.
  In 2015, German-Australian pianist Stefan Ammer, as a part of The Scriabin Project Concert Series, joined forces alongside his pupils Mekhla Kumar, Konstantin Shamray and Ashley Hribar to honour the Russian composer at various venues across Australia.
caption: Autograph signature, from the manuscript of Two Poems, Op. 63.[42] The composer uses the French spelling "Scriabine".
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