Here ya go Tim – yer fave! Even though we’ve all heard it a million times – still – IF you give yourself up to it … and just listen
it will take you away!
*update: after listening see the Post titled: Tim@EspressoHead revisited and the comments
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata
So many of the great composers have been somewhat ‘on the edge.’ Here are three excerpts from the Wikipedia article on Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin.
(I love the bit about how he was going to transform the whole world with a multi-media performance in the Himalayas! – under the influence of Madame Blavatsky and Theosophy)
Scriabin stands as one of the most innovative and most controversial of composers. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia said of Scriabin that, “No composer has had more scorn heaped or greater love bestowed…” Leo Tolstoy once described Scriabin’s music as “a sincere expression of genius.”[2]
In 1909 he returned to Russia permanently, where he continued to compose, working on increasingly grandiose projects. For some time before his death he had planned a multi-media work to be performed in the Himalayas, that would bring about the armageddon, “a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world.” [5] Scriabin left only sketches for this piece, Mysterium, although they were eventually made into a performable version by Alexander Nemtin.[6] The Mysterium was, psychologically speaking, a world Scriabin’s genius created to sustain its own evolution.[7]
Horowitz performed for Scriabin, in his home as an 11 year old child, and Scriabin had an enthusiastic reaction, but cautioned that he needed further training.[11] As an elderly man, Horowitz remarked that Scriabin was obviously crazy, because he had tics and could not sit still.[11]
Tics and all … what beauty he created! It’s easy to see why he is favoured in the repetoire of many of the piano masters.
Piano Sonata no. 3 Op. 24 / Andante:Â *** The very last few seconds are cut. Strange! … every source I tried had this cut off ending.*** What a beautiful piece.
scriabin-05-piano-sonata-no-3-in-f-sharp-minor-op-24-03-andante
Scriabin etude no 11
Scriabin prelude 3 opus 17
Even though this is almost always included in the “Top 20, 50 or 100” of Classical Pieces – I still won’t include it in the Exclusive, ‘Perfect Music’ section. (*wanting to keep that section very exclusive!)
BUT … just listen to the piano work 2 – 3 minutes into the piece. With just a handfull of strokes on the keyboard, you’d swear you’d Died and Gone to Heaven!
Grieg piano concerto in a minor op-16-2-adagio attacca
My wife says; HOW could you not love this? (O Mio Babbino Caro by Puccini) And I say … well – I guess I do – a little bit! (*uTube link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0diDwHtATw
BUT – a BIG BUT! … I feel the emotional power much more from the Orchestral version.
Puccini-o-mio-babbino-caro
Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev was an important figure in the Russian music scene of the 1800’s. He was Tchaikovskys pupil and the teacher of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. I read somewhere that in Russia today his bust will appear alongside Beethoven, Tchaikovsky etc. And yet … “By the time of his death at the age of 58, Taneyev had left behind a substantial catalog of works, virtually none of which has entered the standard repertory.”
The virtuosic and scintillating Suite de concert, Taneyev’s first work for solo violin and orchestra. This is the final variation and coda.
Taneyev Suite de concert Final variation and coda
As a virtuoso pianist Taneyev could display his own piano works, as Chopin, Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, and Medtner had done and were to do. Somewhat unusually for a pianist-composer of his calibre, however, he wrote very few compositions for the instrument, and he did not perform these at concerts…
Taneyev Repose (Elegy) in E major
From the String Quartet #3 – opus 7 (Theme and Variations)Â I’ve picked out three of the variations
SQ variation