Scriabin Symphonies, etc
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Alexander Scriabin
Label: Symphony Edition
Magazine Review Date: 12/1995
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 225
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 74321 20297-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphony No. 1 |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Fedin, Tenor Alexander Scriabin, Composer Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Figuralchor, Frankfurt Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra Tamara Siniawskaia, Soprano |
| Symphony No. 2 |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra |
| Symphony No. 3, 'Divine Poem' |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra Vladimir Krainev, Piano |
| (Le) Poème de l'extase |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra |
| Concerto for Piano and Orchestra |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra Gerhard Oppitz, Piano |
| Prometheus, '(Le) poeme du feu' |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra |
| Rêverie |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Dmitri Kitaenko, Conductor Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra |
Author: John Steane
These are the first issues of 1990s recordings at half the price of Muti's acclaimed Philadelphia set. What is more, Kitaienko's survey, unlike Muti's, includes the Piano Concerto and the short Reverie. It also includes a chorus for the final bars of Le Poeme de l'extase (a bizarre idea that has a dubious precedent in Scriabin's use of it at the same point in Prometheus), and there are copious unmarked parts for cymbals in the numbered symphonies, from a light dusting of metal to the occasional clash (there is a dubious precedent here too, in that generations of conductors, particularly Russian ones, have felt their use to be necessary). Kitaienko's textual deviations also include a fondness for silent pauses: they may be useful signposts, breathing spaces or dramatic interpolations; they may also be felt to be disruptive.
So much for the extras. Is there anything missing? Most obviously, ample Philadelphia string tone, and some of the most voluptuous string playing (with portamento) to have come from that orchestra since Stokowski's days. Arguably Scriabin's music thrives on such things. Even our own BBC Symphony Orchestra strings manage greater warmth and variety of tone colour (and portamento) in the opening minute of the central Andante from the Piano Concerto (the Oppitz/Kitaienko account could happily join a collection, but the Demidenko / BBC SO / Lazarev would grace one), and, staying with Scriabin's most hauntingly beautiful tune, is there not an imbalance when the clarinet (which must have been Scriabin's favourite orchestral instrument) takes over the tune? In Frankfurt, it is the piano decorations of the tune which dominate. The piano moves back a few metres for Prometheus, as it probably should, which is a way of saying that if you are used to the famous Ashkenazy/Maazel, you might feel that the piano part lacks projection and character (Alexeev is similarly distant for Muti), but then everything is much clearer and closer on that 25-year-old Decca recording. More generally, you may wish to know whether Scriabin's climaxes cause the earth to move as often (and by as much) as it does in the Muti set. Not quite, I would submit.
Kitaienko risks greater extremes of tempo than most. The ups and downs inLe poeme de l'extase perhaps add to its allure (a more languid and curvaceous Lento I've yet to hear). Elsewhere, one or two tempo transitions and manoeuverings are a little awkward, for example, from the slowest of all Andantes at the outset of the Second Symphony's slow movement to its necessarily much faster piu vivo sections (Kitaienko takes 15'44'' in this movement; Muti 13'40'' and Jarvi 11'30''). The exception is the vast first movement of the Third Symphony, where Kitaienko keeps a cool head and a long view, and where, untypically, Muti is all at sea.
Swings and roundabouts then. If the idea appeals of a bargain acquisition of all Scriabin's work for orchestra (this is it, apart from an early symphonic poem), take my advice and ignore my roundabouts.'
So much for the extras. Is there anything missing? Most obviously, ample Philadelphia string tone, and some of the most voluptuous string playing (with portamento) to have come from that orchestra since Stokowski's days. Arguably Scriabin's music thrives on such things. Even our own BBC Symphony Orchestra strings manage greater warmth and variety of tone colour (and portamento) in the opening minute of the central Andante from the Piano Concerto (the Oppitz/Kitaienko account could happily join a collection, but the Demidenko / BBC SO / Lazarev would grace one), and, staying with Scriabin's most hauntingly beautiful tune, is there not an imbalance when the clarinet (which must have been Scriabin's favourite orchestral instrument) takes over the tune? In Frankfurt, it is the piano decorations of the tune which dominate. The piano moves back a few metres for Prometheus, as it probably should, which is a way of saying that if you are used to the famous Ashkenazy/Maazel, you might feel that the piano part lacks projection and character (Alexeev is similarly distant for Muti), but then everything is much clearer and closer on that 25-year-old Decca recording. More generally, you may wish to know whether Scriabin's climaxes cause the earth to move as often (and by as much) as it does in the Muti set. Not quite, I would submit.
Kitaienko risks greater extremes of tempo than most. The ups and downs in
Swings and roundabouts then. If the idea appeals of a bargain acquisition of all Scriabin's work for orchestra (this is it, apart from an early symphonic poem), take my advice and ignore my roundabouts.'
Scriabin Symphonies, etc
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