# Scriabin Piano Sonatas - good recordings?



## FPwtc

I have recently got into Scriabin and have been enjoying a Brilliant Classics box set of his symphonies I was recommended on this forum. I want to explore his solo piano work now, are there any outstanding cds featuring his Sonatas or general solo piano work I should check out?

Thanks!


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## Pugg

If you want a decent set go for thise one.:
​
It is very reasonable priced at Amazon.


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## chesapeake bay

Vladimir Sofronitsky plays Scriabin exceptionally well


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## calvinpv

As far as general solo piano works, I'm not into them enough to buy multiple recordings, but I have Maria Lettberg's complete set of Scriabin, and she gets the job done. If you're into Scriabin's very early unpublished works, you'll have to supplement Lettberg's box set with some other CD.

As far as the sonatas go (which is where Scriabin truly shines), I agree with Pugg on the Ashkenazy set. Ashkenazy's interpretation is not only the most consistent amongst recordings, but his consistency also sets a high bar for everyone else. Given how difficult these sonatas are, one way to tell a good from bad recording is to just compare multiple recordings of the 7th sonata, arguably his most difficult sonata. Most recordings will either labor through, removing the dynamism of the work (unfortunately, Lettberg's recording of the sonatas falls into this category) or they will speed through, either to show off virtuosity or because they can't keep a good tempo, which prevents a sustained appreciation of Scriabin's use of color. This is an indication that the pianist doesn't quite have the chops to tackle Scriabin. Ashkenazy does. I'm sure you could find individual recordings of 2, 3, 5, and 9 that are better than Ashkenazy, considering these are the easier and more popular sonatas. But for sonatas 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, Ashkenazy has the technique to maintain the dynamism while also having the temperance to not go too fast. Hope this helps.


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## Orfeo

I find this album a very good candidate.


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## lextune

Ashkenazy is indeed a great starting place. He is certainly the most even of the 'complete sets'. With Szidon coming in a close second, (a completely different approach too!) After that, you can search out individual performances of the Sonatas you most enjoy. 

Sofronitsky is always an excellent choice in Scriabin, if you do not mind 'historical' recordings. 

As a life long Scriabin scholar I am happy to share a few of my favorite recordings of the Sonatas:

2nd - It is quite popular and there are many fine recordings. I like Pogorelich quite a bit.

3rd - Again, very popular, you should hear Horowitz (like Sofronitsky, Horowitz is always a great choice in Scriabin, but should not be the only interpretation you know). Gilels also excells in the 3rd.

4th - Played much less, Ogden's 4th has always seemed just right to me. Ogden recorded the complete set, but for this listener many of them are extremely uneven. His 4th and 6th are the only ones that have stuck with me over the years. Joseph Villa is also worth seeking out, his 4th is beautifully done.

5th - Along with the 9th, this is Scriabin's most often played sonata. Easiest recommendations would go to the standards, Sofronitsky, Horowitz, Richter, Ashkenazy, and Zhukov.

6th - Richter played it, and he was recorded once, but the recording, and the audience, are terrible. Still worth listening to. For other wonderful interpretations, with a much superior recording look to Roger Woodward, and Ogden.

7th - Richter, (wonderful, amazing, live recording from the early 90s), Volodos, live in Vienna, and Villa.

8th - The only entry from Hamelin's complete set that I can unequivocally recommend. It's slightly more pedantic construction, compared to the other Sonatas, seems to appeal to him. 

9th - Like the 5th it is widely recorded. Again like the 5th, look to the standard bearers, Sofronitsky, Horowitz, Richter, Ashkenazy, Zhukov, and I would add Sokolov, Szidon, and Sudbin.

10th - Woodward, Volodos and Horowitz. 

All Scriabin recorded by the following can be recommended: Sofronitsky, Horowitz, Richter, Ashkenazy, Sokolov, Volodos, Woodward, Zhukov.

I might add to this post later, I actually had no time this morning, lol. I would be happy to add recommendations and insight to Scriabin's poemes, preludes, etudes, and other pieces too.


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## lextune

Woodward's 6th - 




Volodos' 7th -


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## starthrower

Comprehensive 8 CD set plus performance DVD.










Great value at under 25 dollars. This set was quite expensive 4-5 years ago.
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/pr...rformer=maria+lettberg&medium=all&label=&cat=


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## Vaneyes

I warn...once you start collecting *Scriabin* Sonatas (and other solo works--I've listed CDs with those, also), it can be an addiction. Not dissimilar to acquiring *Haydn* Sonatas and *D. Scarlatti *Sonatas.

Horowitz (Sony, RCA), Richter (Decca, Parnassus), Sudbin (BIS), Gavrilov (EMI), Alexeev(Brilliant Classics), Pletnev (Virgin), Hamelin (Hyperion), Ashkenazy (Decca), Melnikov (harmonia mundi), Amoyel (Calliope), Le Van (M&A), Sokolov (naive), Sofronitsky (Multisonic), Gould (Sony), Mustonen (Ondine), Feltsman (Nimbus).

Enjoy! :tiphat:


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## JACE

lextune said:


> I might add to this post later, I actually had no time this morning, lol. I would be happy to add recommendations and insight to Scriabin's poemes, preludes, etudes, and other pieces too.


lextune - I would love to hear your recommendations on the other works as well. Thanks! :tiphat:

My 2 cents regarding the sonatas: Ashkenazy would also my top choice for a complete set.

I'd also recommend exploring Horowitz and Melnikov.


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## lextune

starthrower said:


> Comprehensive 8 CD set plus performance DVD.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Great value at under 25 dollars. This set was quite expensive 4-5 years ago.
> http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/pr...rformer=maria+lettberg&medium=all&label=&cat=


I really think that the price dropped (as you said, it has dropped dramatically over the years), for good reason. Anything is too much to pay for bad Scriabin, and much of this is just bad Scriabin.

She was just not ready for this undertaking. Glaringly so in nearly all of the character pieces, and the smaller gems in the Preludes.

In the Sonatas she manages to find a few lovely sonorities here and there, but they are few and far between. None of them are unique. Mostly they are merely competent, (she is better in the later ones).

She is obviously a 'have notes, will play' virtuoso. There are no technical requirements beyond her. But that is literally the baseline beginning for any Scriabin interpretation. It feels like she was rushed into this project.

I hope someday in the future we hear from her in the Scriabin works she stays with. And lives with. And truly loves.


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## lextune

Vaneyes said:


> Melnikov (harmonia mundi)





JACE said:


> Melnikov.


An excellent Scriabin player you both remembered that I forgot! Thanks.

His care to detail, which is essential in all the smaller works, is wonderful. The sonatas he recorded are all quite good. Beautiful sonorities everywhere.

He has a quicker impetus in the smaller works, (which is not to say hurried), than I prefer, but he is still convincing.



Vaneyes said:


> I warn...once you start collecting *Scriabin* Sonatas it can be an addiction.


It is so very true!


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## starthrower

lextune said:


> I really think that the price dropped (as you said, it has dropped dramatically over the years), for good reason. Anything is too much to pay for bad Scriabin, and much of this is just bad Scriabin.
> 
> She was just not ready for this undertaking. Glaringly so in nearly all of the character pieces, and the smaller gems in the Preludes.


I'm just a listener, not an analytical expert or classical musician/pianist. From what I've read, Lettberg was not rushed into anything. She has been playing Scriabin for many many years, and wrote a doctoral thesis on his music. And the Capriccio recordings were done over a four year period. I haven't listened to many different cycles, so I didn't have any expectations coming in to this music. I do have one other set of sonatas by Ruth Laredo, but I suppose some would poo poo her performances as well.


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## lextune

Laredo is a very good set. She was an amazing colorist. Perfectly suited to Scriabin's kaleidoscopic music. She is quite unassailable, even if one were not inclined towards her approach, and preferred a more rhythmic, structural attempt at cohesiveness, (ala Hamelin).

What a tragedy when she died at 67, she had played her last concert only a few weeks before.


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## starthrower

Laredo's sound is cleaner and more articulate. Lettberg's is a bit hazy.


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## DeepR

I have nothing to add except that his other solo piano music is very much worth exploring as well. He was also a master at piano miniatures (preludes, etudes, poemes and other pieces).


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## Bulldog

A single Scriabin mazurkas disc I recommend is by Eric Le Van on Music & Arts - stunning tension, elasticity and melancholy with a soundstage of depth, clarity and richness.


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## FPwtc

Great suggestions all thanks!


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## FPwtc

lextune said:


> Ashkenazy is indeed a great starting place. He is certainly the most even of the 'complete sets'. With Szidon coming in a close second, (a completely different approach too!) After that, you can search out individual performances of the Sonatas you most enjoy.
> 
> Sofronitsky is always an excellent choice in Scriabin, if you do not mind 'historical' recordings.
> 
> As a life long Scriabin scholar I am happy to share a few of my favorite recordings of the Sonatas:
> 
> 2nd - It is quite popular and there are many fine recordings. I like Pogorelich quite a bit.
> 
> 3rd - Again, very popular, you should hear Horowitz (like Sofronitsky, Horowitz is always a great choice in Scriabin, but should not be the only interpretation you know). Gilels also excells in the 3rd.
> 
> 4th - Played much less, Ogden's 4th has always seemed just right to me. Ogden recorded the complete set, but for this listener many of them are extremely uneven. His 4th and 6th are the only ones that have stuck with me over the years. Joseph Villa is also worth seeking out, his 4th is beautifully done.
> 
> 5th - Along with the 9th, this is Scriabin's most often played sonata. Easiest recommendations would go to the standards, Sofronitsky, Horowitz, Richter, Ashkenazy, and Zhukov.
> 
> 6th - Richter played it, and he was recorded once, but the recording, and the audience, are terrible. Still worth listening to. For other wonderful interpretations, with a much superior recording look to Roger Woodward, and Ogden.
> 
> 7th - Richter, (wonderful, amazing, live recording from the early 90s), Volodos, live in Vienna, and Villa.
> 
> 8th - The only entry from Hamelin's complete set that I can unequivocally recommend. It's slightly more pedantic construction, compared to the other Sonatas, seems to appeal to him.
> 
> 9th - Like the 5th it is widely recorded. Again like the 5th, look to the standard bearers, Sofronitsky, Horowitz, Richter, Ashkenazy, Zhukov, and I would add Sokolov, Szidon, and Sudbin.
> 
> 10th - Woodward, Volodos and Horowitz.
> 
> All Scriabin recorded by the following can be recommended: Sofronitsky, Horowitz, Richter, Ashkenazy, Sokolov, Volodos, Woodward, Zhukov.
> 
> I might add to this post later, I actually had no time this morning, lol. I would be happy to add recommendations and insight to Scriabin's poemes, preludes, etudes, and other pieces too.


Nicely broken down thanks!


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## Janspe

A vote for Ashkenazy from me as well. He's not perfect - no one is - but I think he doesn't get the credit he deserves as a Scriabin interpreter. His complete set is a really impressive effort! In addition, he has recorded the piano concerto and the Prometheus as the pianist + the three symphonies as the conductor! He's a true Scriabin expert.


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## Pugg

Janspe said:


> A vote for Ashkenazy from me as well. He's not perfect - no one is - but I think he doesn't get the credit he deserves as a Scriabin interpreter. His complete set is a really impressive effort! In addition, he has recorded the piano concerto and the Prometheus as the pianist + the three symphonies as the conductor! He's a true Scriabin expert.


Well spoken, people like to bash, just for the bashing, I am not bothered just like you .


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## Valjuan

I've also been getting into the Scriabin Sonatas and have been surveying Ashkenazy's complete set. This was brought on because a studios mates of mine played Scriabin 2 and 4 last semester and I'm currently working on "Black Mass". Any particular suggestions for other interpretations of No. 9? I'm already quite familiar with Horowitz's demonic reading of it.


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## Pugg

Valjuan said:


> I've also been getting into the Scriabin Sonatas and have been surveying Ashkenazy's complete set. This was brought on because a studios mates of mine played Scriabin 2 and 4 last semester and I'm currently working on "Black Mass". Any particular suggestions for other interpretations of No. 9? I'm already quite familiar with Horowitz's demonic reading of it.


Welcome to Talk Classical, Valjuan.


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## Valjuan

Thanks! It's a pleasure.


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## DavidA

Cannot get on too well with this music but the best I terpreters appear to be Horowitz and Richter, but, of course, neither of them made a complete set. Yuja Wang also recorded no 2 in amongst others.


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## DeepR

Yuja Wang's performance of the second sonata is fantastic.




The way she handles that sublime ending of the first movement and the entire second movement is spectacular; she brings out everything there is in this piece.
For some reason it took Scriabin 5 years to compose this sonata, but he made it work.


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## DeepR

Janspe said:


> A vote for Ashkenazy from me as well. He's not perfect - no one is - but I think he doesn't get the credit he deserves as a Scriabin interpreter. His complete set is a really impressive effort! In addition, he has recorded the piano concerto and the Prometheus as the pianist + the three symphonies as the conductor! He's a true Scriabin expert.


He's not my favorite overall but I agree he's great with Scriabin. I love his playing of the 8th sonata, which is my favorite sonata. To these ears he also conducted the finest versions of the concerto and third symphony.


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## NLAdriaan

A vote for Maria Lettberg, who captures the right atmosphere and offers (almost) the entire Scriabin solo piano oeuvre on 8 CD's (+1 DVD) at a steal. 

Since the last post here, a Richter 2 CD Scriabin compilation was brought to the market (Praga Digitals/Harmonia Mundi), for if you don't have all this already on separate discs.


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## joen_cph

Some remarkable, individual ones are Szidon in Sonata 1, Sofronitsky in Sonata 3, and Pogorelich in Sonata 2.
Ashkenazy is a safe bet for an initial, whole set.


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## Guest

I like Igor Zhukov's and Anatol Ugorsky's complete sets.


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## flamencosketches

I like Ashkenazy's complete set on Decca. Another favorite is Sofronitsky's recording of the 3rd, as well as the Black Mass. The latter is my favorite pianist of Scriabin overall.


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## chill782002

Sofronitsky, Horowitz and Richter are always a safe bet when it comes to Scriabin. For lesser known pianists, Laredo, Zhukov and Alexeev are also very good.


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## Larkenfield

Current favorite of the moment is the already mentioned and well-recorded Dmitri Alexeev. If pianists get the iconic 5th Sonata right, they usually understand the others, and for me, Dmitri understands Scriabin's mystical tendencies: https://www.amazon.com/Scriabin-Complete-Sonatas-Dmitri-Alexeev/dp/B00BYQBXZK


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## Rogerx

My favorite Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano), almost untouchable.


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## MrMeatScience

I'll add my vote to the chorus suggesting Ashkenazy. Of the more modern recordings, he seems to get the music more than most. I turn to these sonatas more and more these days, and they only get better with time.


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## aussiebushman

Unless I missed it,no one has mentioned Lazar Berman. Unfortunately, I can find no suggestion that he ever recorded more than a few pieces but if you can find what is available, you are in for a revelation.

The Mercury-Hill boxed set 943492 includes the Scriabin Etudes Op 42 numbers 1-8, also Fantasia Op 28, both mind-blowing performances.

Time Magazine described Berman as a virtuoso whose blinding technique appears an easy rival to Horowitz. In my opinion, this does not mean that Berman's technique takes precedence over sheer musicianship. Arguably, much the same can be said for Gavlilov, Gordon Fergus-Thompson (



) and Piers Lane

Since Chopin was Scriabin's foremost early inspiration, it does not seem unreasonable to include this short video performance of Lola Astanova. Listening is optional - just watch and drool!


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## Roger Knox

aussiebushman said:


> Since Chopin was Scriabin's foremost early inspiration, it does not seem unreasonable to include this short video performance of Lola Astanova. Listening is optional - just watch ...


... yet I chose, also not unreasonably, to read the comments instead. It sure took a long time to find so much as a mention of Chopin, let alone comments on rubato, pedalling, singing tone, and whether the work is more fantaisie or impromptu!


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## Sad Al

I find Laredo's recording outstanding when I play it loud. She plays passionately and the Baldwin piano she used was a gem.


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## Enthusiast

Richter, of course. I do also like Ogdon and Sudbin's Scriabin recital is also very good (but it only has two of the sonatas).


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## Sad Al

Sofronitsky on Denon is Denonic (sorry I couldn't resist)! It's Laredo and Sofronitsky for me. Has anyone heard Steuerman's record?


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## Sad Al

Yes, someone has heard Steuerman's record. It's me. The last one he recorded for Philips. Not bad at all and in wonderful Hamburg Steinway sound!
Goodbye! From now on I think I'll just drink and stink and play Laredo's Scriabin to get rid of my neighbors


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## ZeR0

For a complete set, I like Ashkenazy. For individual sonatas, Sofronitsky plays with a deep understanding of the music. Also the few I've heard by Richter and Horowitz I've liked.


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## HenryPenfold

Haven't read the previous posts, so apologies if this has been said, but Maria Lettberg is a staggering performance, across them all. IMHO, head and shoulders above the rest.


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## chill782002

Hakon Austbo's set is also very good.


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## Cortot

Samuil Feinberg, Walter Gieseking, Glenn Gould. Beautiful recordings that are not mentioned much.


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## UniversalTuringMachine

Yujia Wang's recent Berlin Recital has an incredible Scriabin No. 10 that has made me understand this obscure work. The subtle rhythmic figures are very well done. But I will let the expert judge it's full worth.


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