# Chopin > Scriabin - and relativity



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I pulled from the rack and listened yesterday to a transferred download of a recital wherein Zhukov played Chopin's Op. 28 preludes followed by Scriabin's Op. 11 preludes. I've been letting the experience percolate in my head since then.

Chopin's influence on Scriabin's early works is even more obvious than usual when presented this way. There are even fairly direct references. What I find also obvious is the _relative_ incompetence of Scriabin's compositional skills. When I listen to his Op. 11 by itself, or with other of his early works, the music works well. When it's presented as it is here, not so good.

There may well be a 'maturity factor' at work here; I wonder if there is something else as well.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Scriabin struggled a lot with the composition of the _24 Preludes _(1889-1894, meaning they were started when he was 17 years old), and was, as far as I remember, under some pressure from this editor to finish them. When he composed them, he had already also finished a more ambitious, large-scale work like the 1st Sonata, and was working on the - IMO - sophisticatedly condensed 2nd Sonata. So I think it is partly a "maturity"-issue, like you say, of "finding oneself" as a composer.

It´s been a while since I heard the _Preludes_ set (I´ve got Zafirants, Kerer, Dubourg, Ponti and (?)Zhukov, and have ordered the complete Scriabin opus works with Maria Lettberg, am really looking forward to that recording a lot).

But I have some vague idea that Scriabin´s _12 Etudes op.8 _(composed in 1894-95) are more varied and rich in content than the _Preludes_ (Brownridge is good, I also have Ponti, Merzhanov, Richter and Lane).

Scriabin perhaps only found a more personal language from about 1894-95. He also suffered a severe mental nightmarish crisis at that time, which might influence that development of a more personal style ... (?). This is mentioned in the Brownridge Meridian record notes, which also states that those years marked a rapid development.

Chopin´s _Preludes_ were composed at Mallorca when he went through a personal and physical crisis, perhaps likewise influencing the level of expression ...


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## Lisztian (Oct 10, 2011)

This is a tad off topic, but I never got the acclaim of Chopin's preludes. Some of them are terrific of course, but most of them I just find to be simply pleasant, and hardly anything more. Then I see many on this site calling the preludes his best works...I would put the nocturnes, ballades and sonatas firmly above the preludes. I feel the same way about the etudes as I do the preludes.

This post was fairly meaningless, i've just never gotten them, is all - and i'm a HUGE Chopin fan.


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