# Favorite orchestral work by Scriabin



## DeepR

What are your favorite orchestral works by Scriabin?

I've been listening to them extensively in the last years and I totally love them all, except the second symphony not so much. 
I excluded the very short "Reverie" and unfinished works.

I would rank them like this: 

1. Prometheus: The Poem of Fire
2. The Poem of Ecstasy
3. Symphony No. 1
4. Piano Concerto
5. Symphony No. 3
6. Symphony No. 2


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## Lukecash12

Prometheus and the first symphony are my two favorites of this group. Yet the rest of them I think are marvelous as well.


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## elgar's ghost

I like the lot with no real preference, even the early Symphonic Poem and the brief Reverie. If I had to choose then maybe it would be the 1st or 3rd symphonies just for their sheer brass neck and bombast.


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## joen_cph

All of them great works. The Piano Concerto is usually the one I hear the most - but I voted Prometheus.


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## stanchinsky

I wanted to vote for Mysterium but I suppose since it was not completed it doesn't really count. I mean any piece that's supposed to bring about the apocalypse has got to be good. But I do love The Poem of Ecstacy so I'll go with that. There all great works though.


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## violadude

What don't you like about Symphony #2, DeepR?


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## techniquest

I voted for "The Poem of Ecstasy", though the repetitive trumpet theme could be cut by two or three repeats. It is a work that can easily fail and become quite bland if not played (and / or recorded) properly. The performance at The BBC Proms in 2010 with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen was knock-your-socks-off brilliant!


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## Crudblud

The only one of these I don't like is the Piano Concerto, although what was completed of the Mysterium more than makes up for that.


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## Vaneyes

I don't care for the PC either. Sym. 3's my favorite of the orchestral works, for the swing band melody and delayed ending.


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## joen_cph

The _piano concerto_ tends to get rather dull performances underlining its discreet and lyrical character a bit too much, but Bashkirov/Kondrashin is an example of a more engaged rendering


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## DeepR

violadude said:


> What don't you like about Symphony #2, DeepR?


Mostly the last movement. It feels a little "generic", as far as that is possible with Scriabin. I do get positive vibes from it, but it doesn't satisfy me as much as the other works listed, that all have finales/final movements that are much more deep and profound IMO. Including the piano concerto, which I think is fantastic and easily rivals Rachmaninoff 2 and Grieg PC.


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## DeepR

The Piano Concerto, Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 3 and the Poem of Ecstasy were all performed at the BBC Proms 2010.


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## Huilunsoittaja

Ooooooh this is a real tough one for me, currently a tie between Poem of Ecstasy and Symphony no. 3 "Divine Poem" despite its program.

I think Divine Poem wins tonight.


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## violadude

DeepR said:


> Mostly the last movement. It feels a little "generic", as far as that is possible with Scriabin. I do get positive vibes from it, but it doesn't satisfy me as much as the other works listed, that all have finales/final movements that are much more deep and profound IMO. Including the piano concerto, which I think is fantastic and easily rivals Rachmaninoff 2 and Grieg PC.


Ya, I know what you mean about the last movement. The way that the main theme is derived from the first movement seems a bit hackneyed by the time that Scriabin wrote it.


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## joen_cph

Concerning the *Piano Concerto*, I forgot to mention this wonderful, quite lively performance by Margarita Fyodorova, apparently quite famous for her Scriabin in Russia: 




Cf. also http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Fyodorova-Margarita.htm


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## Tristan

Scriabin's orchestral music is underrated, in my opinion. The Poem of Ecstasy is unlike anything I've ever heard and is among my favorite pieces of classical music. I also like the Piano Concerto, particularly the second movement.


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## DeepR

I've heard Prometheus live last week, for the second time at the same location (Brussels, Bozar), but with a different orchestra. The performance felt a bit rushed and out of control sometimes, but it was still a very powerful experience, especially the last minutes!
An artist was painting live along with the music backstage. This painting was projected on a big screen, but that didn't do much for me. Apparently the information Scriabin provided about the colors isn't very specific/detailed, so everytime when the "color aspect"' is taken into a performance, they are but wild interpretations.


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## violadude

DeepR said:


> I've heard Prometheus live last week, for the second time at the same location (Brussels, Bozar), but with a different orchestra. The performance felt a bit rushed and out of control sometimes, but it was still a very powerful experience, especially the last minutes!
> An artist was painting live along with the music backstage. This painting was projected on a big screen, but that didn't do much for me. Apparently the information Scriabin provided about the colors isn't very specific/detailed, so everytime when the "color aspect"' is taken into a performance, they are but wild interpretations.


I recently listened to this piece closely while reading the score. It's fascinating. In its own way, it rivals the Rite of Spring in terms of groundbreaking, innovative orchestral writing yet it was written two years earlier!


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

My fav isn't in the list: I'd vote for The White Mass, Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64


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## violadude

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> My fav isn't in the list: I'd vote for The White Mass, Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64


That's not orchestral....


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## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^But still my fav


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## violadude

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^But still my fav


Well, I guess if you are going to ignore the qualifiers of a "favorites" question, you could name any piece you wanted


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## elgar's ghost

Violadude, do you think chamber or orchestral arrangements of Skryabin's piano works be an interesting idea? I've often wondered what it would be like to hear them 'bulked out'.


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## violadude

elgars ghost said:


> Violadude, do you think chamber or orchestral arrangements of Skryabin's piano works be an interesting idea? I've often wondered what it would be like to hear them 'bulked out'.


Yes, that would be quite interesting. It would be very difficult though. Most of his piano pieces, as far as I can tell, are fairly idiosyncratic for the piano.


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## joen_cph

There´s an arrangement of a work for two pianos as a piano concerto movement,




but not extremely interesting.

Also, the "Mysterium" CD releases have experimented with such things. The Decca Ashekenazy release has a succesful attempt by Nemtin called "Nuances" for piano & orchestra, here´s an excerpt:


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## ptr

Scriabin is one of those rare birds whose orchestral music eludes me in a way conversely to that of his piano music, which I adore immensely and feel along with Rachmaninov's is the pinnacle of the (late) romantic piano oeuvre!

If I have to choose one of his orchestral works, then it is "Le Poème de l'extase". I listened to Ashkenazy's recording of Nemtin's realisation of the "Mysterium" when it came out and found it intriguing but mostly inadequate. 

/ptr


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## DeepR

violadude said:


> I recently listened to this piece closely while reading the score. It's fascinating. In its own way, it rivals the Rite of Spring in terms of groundbreaking, innovative orchestral writing yet it was written two years earlier!


The recording by Muti/Philadelphia orchestra should be easy to follow, it's very straight forward with no surprises in tempo. Also it's the clearest and most dynamic recording I've heard in terms of sound quality. Maybe not the most adventurous interpretation, but it's still my favorite recording.


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## DeepR

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> My fav isn't in the list: I'd vote for The White Mass, Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64


Then you probably would've liked the concert I went to as well, since this piece was also played. After that came a great performance of Vers La Flamme. Then Prometheus started.

Since I can't get enough of Scriabin I'm already planning to go to London next year: http://lso.co.uk/gergievs-scriabin-symphonies-1-4


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## DeepR

I think I have severely underrated Symphony No. 3. The favorite list is getting pretty much impossible now.

I've been listening to it more closely. At first a lot of passages seemed to dwell aimlessly, but now I see that every little part is integral to the whole. I love this symphony. It's vibrant, playful and uplifting. It's like witnessing some kind of grand spectacle in the heavens.


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## joen_cph

Boris Lyatoshinsky´s symphonies are very Scriabinesque too, such as no.1 (1919)


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## DeepR

violadude said:


> I recently listened to this piece closely while reading the score. It's fascinating. In its own way, it rivals the Rite of Spring in terms of groundbreaking, innovative orchestral writing yet it was written two years earlier!


Stravinsky admired Scriabin's music and was probably influenced by it to some degree. There's a nice paragraph on the relation between Scriabin and Stravinsky in a Stravinsky biography found on google books.  They even met a couple of times.


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## DeepR

I bumped this topic just to say it was wrong of me to leave out the Rêverie, Op. 24. It's a very charming little piece.






(I prefer the version from the Ashkenazy set to this recording)

Wikipedia says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rêverie_(Scriabin)

"Scriabin, who was a pianist, never before had composed for orchestra before, except for a few unpublished works. However, he composed the work in total secrecy, without any advice."

Which is strange because the Piano Concerto was written earlier.


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## DeepR

elgars ghost said:


> Violadude, do you think chamber or orchestral arrangements of Skryabin's piano works be an interesting idea? I've often wondered what it would be like to hear them 'bulked out'.


These may be of interest:

Op. 32 No. 1 orchestrated




Op. 32 No. 2 orchestrated




Op. 11 No. 9 for brass quintet


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## lupinix

very difficult choice! i haven't heard symphony 1 yet but the greatest problem is chosing between poeme of extasy, divin poeme and the concerto, Ill have to think about this!


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## elgar's ghost

DeepR said:


> These may be of interest:
> 
> Op. 32 No. 1 orchestrated
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Op. 32 No. 2 orchestrated
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Op. 11 No. 9 for brass quintet


Thanks for that. Since my previous post I have heard orchestrations of the funeral march from the first sonata and some of the preludes.


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## Richannes Wrahms

I chose The Poem of Ecstasy only because I hate the "symphonic piano" in Prometheus.


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## DeepR

Hello fellow Scriabin enthusiasts  Yesterday my journey into Scriabin's orchestral music reached a peak at the Barbican centre in London where the LSO and Gergiev performed both Symphony No. 1 and Poem of Ecstasy. A wonderful opportunity to hear both these pieces on one evening. It was phenomenal. Even after listening to both compositions numerous times, I was still stunned by their tremendous finales. Overall very fine performances.


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## DeepR

DeepR said:


> Hello fellow Scriabin enthusiasts  Yesterday my journey into Scriabin's orchestral music reached a peak at the Barbican centre in London where the LSO and Gergiev performed both Symphony No. 1 and Poem of Ecstasy. A wonderful opportunity to hear both these pieces on one evening. It was phenomenal. Even after listening to both compositions numerous times, I was still stunned by their tremendous finales. Overall very fine performances.


The Poem of Ecstasy as performed 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01wjvm2


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## joen_cph

As a side remark - those who like Scriabin´s orchestral works also have the symphonies of *Boris Lyatoshinsky *



, some of the early ones by *Myaskovsky* 



, and *Szymanowski*´s 



, as well as *Gavril Popov*´s 1st Symphony 



 to dive into - for example.


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## DeepR

^ Thanks for the suggestions.

Meanwhile I've read a few reviews about the concert I went to and most of the criticism is about Scriabin's Symphony no. 1, calling it a mediocre work, that is overly long, meandering and with a clumsy and forced chorus at the end... I guess it's not without its flaws and it doesn't have great structure or development, but to me this symphony has other qualities that more than make up for what it lacks. And I really don't see what's wrong with the final movement, it's absolutely glorious!


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## Celloman

I voted for the Poem of Ecstasy.

Why? No comment.


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## atmplayspiano

Le Poème Divin!


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## Marschallin Blair

_Plat principal: Promethée_:_ Le Poème du Feu à la Argerich_:


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## Dim7

The Poem of Ecstacy will always remain my favorite, but lately I've been into the third movement of the 2nd Symphony (the rest of the symphony I have only listened to absent-mindedly):






It's a bit similar to the Poem of Ecstacy and Sonata no. 4 I think.


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## DeepR

Check out 51:45 - 52:33


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## Dim7

Never thought that Chinese subtitles could be helpful when the video is in English...


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## Orfeo

I always have a warm spot for his First Symphony (cultivated Russian Wagnerism a la Tchaikovskian).


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## DeepR

Although they are very similar in ways, one thing Prometheus does "better" than Poem of Ecstasy: I feel Prometheus has a more continuous, consistent build-up in intensity, one that feels less repetitive, where Poem of Ecstasy has a few outbursts and only becomes really intense near the end. Anyway I love them both equally.


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