# You Can't Compare Scriabin and Chopin



## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

They are two different _tastes_.

If you want the moon, spend an evening with Scriabin.

If you want the stars, spend an evening with Chopin.

However, that is not to say that all composers are incomparable.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Though Scriabin isn´t remembered for the merits of his poems, he actually had a taste for star motifs and music employing them, BTW corresponding to the transcendental and mysterious, cosmological teachings of the Symbolist artists of the day:

1) "... in the Sonata No 4, Op 30 (1903) ... Scriabin wrote a programme: a poem describing flight to a distant star. It reflects the startling new philosophies he was imbibing:

Thinly veiled in transparent cloud
A star shines softly, far and lonely.
How beautiful! The azure secret
Of its radiance beckons, lulls me …
Vehement desire, sensual, insane, sweet …
Now! Joyfully I fly upward toward you,
Freely I take wing.
Mad dance, godlike play …
I draw near in my longing …
Drink you in, sea of light, you light of my own self …

These excerpts give a flavour of Scriabin's literary effusion, which hardly does justice to his music. It does, however, contain a number of motifs which recur in his mental world: light, colour, erotic desire, flight, dance, and the equation of the cosmos with the ego"

Also: "Scriabine décrivait cette œuvre par : "Le vol de l'homme vers l'étoile, symbole du bonheur". Il s'agit d'une composition heureuse, sans tourments ni dépression."
(http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W8639_67131, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonates_pour_piano_de_Scriabine)

2) His "Final Mystery" composition & libretto also employs a lot of star terminology:
https://books.google.dk/books?id=fD...C#v=onepage&q=scriabin opera libretto&f=false

Further examples can probably be found too.


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

joen_cph said:


> Though Scriabin isn´t remembered for the merits of his poems, he actually had a taste for star motifs and music employing them, BTW corresponding to the transcendental and mysterious, cosmological teachings of the Symbolist artists of the day:


Maybe not a coincidence that Stravinsky's most obviously Scriabin-influenced piece is called "King of the Stars." 




The thing is, I think if you reverse Klassic's analogy and make Scriabin the stars and Chopin the moon it works pretty well.


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

joen_cph said:


> 1) "... in the Sonata No 4, Op 30 (1903) ... Scriabin wrote a programme: a poem describing flight to a distant star. It reflects the startling new philosophies he was imbibing:
> 
> Thinly veiled in transparent cloud
> A star shines softly, far and lonely.
> ...


The more I listen to Scriabin; the more I learn about him, the more I like him. His music is full of beauty.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Chopin was a big early influence, just like other composers have their influences.
People who think early-mid Scriabin is uninteresting because it's too much like Chopin just haven't heard (enough of) his music.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

The parallels between Chopin and Scriabin are perfectly obvious, as DeepR has already pointed out. Equally obvious is that Scriabin departed more or less completely from his early Chopin influence. Nevertheless, for anyone who knows the music of both it is impossible not to compare them.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I love the early, Chopinesque Scriabin. For late Scriabin I have to be in a mood I'm seldom in.


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## micro (Jun 18, 2016)

> You Can't Compare Scriabin and Chopin


...................


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

> You Can't Compare Scriabin and Chopin


Do we have to compare, each had it's own merits.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Klassic said:


> They are two different _tastes_.
> 
> If you want the moon, spend an evening with Scriabin.
> 
> ...


Agree entirely, +1

I prefer Chopin but I also like Scriabin.

Both fine composers. Fact.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

If you want to hear a not so great but still very charming "Chopin" you can listen to Scriabin's very earliest pieces with and without opus number. He composed those as a child/young adult. But I think he showed signs of his own unique style pretty early on, still influenced by Chopin (and probably Liszt too), but distinct enough to stand on its own.


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## Dedalus (Jun 27, 2014)

I really don't understand it when somebody says things can't be compared. Saying these composers are different literally _is_ a way of comparing them.


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

Early works of Scriabin is quite in a Chopinesque-Style. But he soon developed his own taste.


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## Mahlerite555 (Aug 27, 2016)

Then why did you open a thread comparing them?


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

In other words, when I say we can't compare Scriabin and Chopin, what I mean is that it is a mistake to ask the question "who is better."

_you will note that I italicized the word 'taste.'_


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

Klassic said:


> In other words, when I say we can't compare Scriabin and Chopin, what I mean is that it is a mistake to ask the question "who is better."


Oh no, that's not a mistake. Chopin is better.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Magnum Miserium said:


> Oh no, that's not a mistake. Chopin is better.


I think Scriabin is marginally better. And also, less outdated


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Magnum Miserium said:


> Oh no, that's not a mistake. Chopin is better.


It's hard not to agree with this when listening to even a single Chopin opus, his 24 Preludes. The freshness, variety, melodic and harmonic inspiration, and depth of feeling compressed into these tiny pieces - now _that's_ something that really _is_ beyond comparison.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Scriabin Sonata No. 9, "Black Mass": Yes, Klassic, I shall follow you into the darkness! Ahh, the darkness!! Yes, master!


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Of the two, as incomparable as they may be, Chopin is certainly better known, more widely performed and studied.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> Of the two, as incomparable as they may be, Chopin is certainly better known, more widely performed and studied.


Then I'll go with Chopin. I want to be popular too.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bulldog said:


> Then I'll go with Chopin. I want to be popular too.


This has nothing to do with being popular, it's about composers.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Pugg said:


> This has nothing to do with being popular, it's about composers.


Sure, have it your way.


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## Abraham Lincoln (Oct 3, 2015)

Scriabin is the more stylish one, just observe that perfectly sculpted mustache. I'm personally not a fan of Chopin's starving vampire look.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Chopin and Scriabin are among a handful of composers who's music I know far better than most composers (I've listened to piano music exclusively for years). I've listened to nearly all their music. They both excel at their own thing.
About the Chopin preludes: Scriabin composed many (more) miniatures (preludes and other pieces) and I find a lot of them equally brilliant, if not more. He's more adventurous and free in harmony and rhythm, while still exquisitely lyrical sometimes.
Scriabin kept changing and moving forward, Chopin's music remained similar to the end. Scriabin easily beats Chopin at orchestral music and sonatas. At other solo piano music they are pretty much tied in my book. Ok, apart from the Ballades... they are godlike (and Scriabin didn't compose any).


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

DeepR said:


> Scriabin kept changing and moving forward, Chopin's music remained similar to the end.


Not it didn't. His latest works were so chromatic for the time that Schumann explained them as a consequence of advanced illness.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Magnum Miserium said:


> Not it didn't. His latest works were so chromatic for the time that Schumann explained them as a consequence of advanced illness.


Funny considering that Schumann's late works were explained the same way by Clara, Brahms and others after his death.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Chronochromie said:


> Funny considering that Schumann's late works were explained the same way by Clara, Brahms and others after his death.


Wasn't that based more on a perception of declining quality rather than stylistic development?


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Wasn't that based more on a perception of declining quality rather than stylistic development?


Maybe. The Violin Concerto and Gesänge der Frühe are some of my favorite Schumann works, so I personally can't agree that the quality in his music declined.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Chronochromie said:


> Maybe. The Violin Concerto and Gesänge der Frühe are some of my favorite Schumann works, so I personally can't agree that the quality in his music declined.


I agree. I didn't even know that he'd written a violin concerto until several years ago, or at least had never heard it or seen it mentioned and simply forgot about it. I find its slow movement especially fascinating and moving.


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## Metairie Road (Apr 30, 2014)

I heard the Scriabin Piano Concerto In F Sharp Minor on the local radio, it was the Ashkenazy with Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra version. I wanted to hear it again. So I went on-line to read some reviews and opinions about this concerto and possibly buy the CD. The reviews were mostly good to enthusiastic.

Until... I stumbled upon this review -

http://www.wrightmusic.net/pdfs/cd-review-40-scriabin-piano-concerto.pdf

This has to be the most nasty and hate filled review of a composer and his work I have EVER read. I found it very disturbing. The more I read however, the more it became apparent that it's the reviewer who's insane and not Scriabin.

It's obvious that the reviewer was targeting and pouring scorn on Scriabin just to push some personal agenda.

Good God, are there still people in the world who think like this?

I ordered the CD from Amazon.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

That's just one example of his nonsensical writings on various composers. They are best ignored since he distorts and makes up facts all to make his "essays" fit his opinion that the quality of the music reflects the personality of the composer.

Scriabin's concerto is excellent, especially movement 2, one of the most beautiful slow movements of all piano concertos. A gorgeous, playful piece of delicate, youthful love, full of longing and with a hint of melancholy.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Metairie Road said:


> I heard the Scriabin Piano Concerto In F Sharp Minor on the local radio, it was the Ashkenazy with Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra version. I wanted to hear it again. So I went on-line to read some reviews and opinions about this concerto and possibly buy the CD. The reviews were mostly good to enthusiastic.
> 
> Until... I stumbled upon this review -
> 
> ...


You needn't get upset! The guy who wrote this isn't a music critic, he is a barely literate crank. Just some fool off the street. It is only through the "wonders of the internet" that such excrescence ever gleams and reeks in the light of day.


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