Customer Reviews

Complete Piano Works of Scriabin

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Michale Ponti may well have recorded too much music in his career - the romantic piano concertos series, piano works of tchaikovsky, moszkowski, brahms, liszt - and also a series of live recitals. But this Scriabin set (and this review also accounts for the companion sonatas discs) may well be one of his most important contributions in regards to recordings. For once, we get a complete cycle of Scriabin's piano works played by a pianist who has the necessary technique and also at an unbeatable budget price - about US$ 25 for the 7 discs!
But not everything seems to work out here. The sound is very much substandard with predominance to the upper registers producing results that become strident at times - the recordings from the early 70's call for urgent remastering. And in regards to Ponti's intepretations, you do not get the feeling that he has all the music under his skin - a lot of extrardinary sight-reading seems to be going on and some inaccuracies are sadly exposed.
Yet, Ponti manages to create an improvisatory style that is very much in tune with the composer's style - and at his best, Scriabin's experimental nature finds a worthy medium in these recordings. Also, he commands all the bravura and cantabile effects of this music seemingly at will.
All in all, we must be happy this project has been released on cd (despite its flaws). You will find better interpretations of many of these works by ogdon, hamelin, horowitz, richter, etc - but as a group and an addition to any collector's library this is a great set.

Ponti's Scriabin IS complete. In fact, it's THE most complete set of Scriabin's piano music ever issued! True, VOX's labeling is confusing-as another reviewer stated, this set and Ponti's set of the sonatas should really be labeled "Vol.I and Vol.II." I don't blame other customers for being confused!

Ponti is a great Scriabin player, period. Unfortunately, his recording of the sonatas is one of the great tragedies of recorded music. The sound accorded his sonatas is virtually unlistenable-fryingly over bright treble and boomy bass--it sounds like it was recorded by someone used to recording rock. The recording engineer should be taken out and shot!

It's a tragedy, because the playing is marvellous. The other pieces in that set and the present set are much more listentably recorded. The sound of the present set is better, and not nearly so bad as some reviewers would have one believe. With some fiddling at the tone controls, it can be rendered quite listenable. I found that adjusting the tone controls to treble at 9:00 and bass at 10:00 renders everything except the sonatas much easier to take.

Unfortunately, if one wants Ponti's Scriabin complete (even if one chooses to supplement his sonatas with something in better sound) one has to buy both this set and his set of the "Complete Piano Music" on five CD's. That's actually not so bad--the sets are cheap enough.

However, if merely getting the complete Scriabin is your goal, there are alternatives.

1. There's a really excellent 8-disc set of all Scriabin works with opus numbers available on Capriccio played by Maria Lettberg. This is really first-rate, and can form the basis of your Scriabin collection Das Solo-Klavierwerk. The set can also be downloaded as MP3's from the NAXOS website.

2. Two possibilities here: Lettberg doesn't play any of the posthumously-published early Scriabin. Most of this is available on Coombs's CD, "The Early Scriabin," (The Early Scriabin.). Unfortunately, he omits the early "Albumleaves" in F-sharp and A-flat and the Fantasy for Two Pianos. All of the pieces Coombs plays plus everything he doesn't are in Ponti's set called "Complete Piano Music". The sound of this set can be rendered fairly listenable with the tone controls.

To sum up: Get Lettberg's set. Add the early works she doesn't play with Coomb's "The Early Scriabin", OR, (for absolute completeness) from the present set by Ponti. And oh, yes, you might want another set of the sonatas--these pieces are so multi-faceted that you might want more than one interpretation-my personal favorite is Hamelin.

RE the Sonata in E-flat minor: This work has come down to us unfinished. Although I personally prefer Ponti's completion of the unfinished slow movement to Glemser's or Coombs's, his recording is rather out of the running because he plays the wrong first movement--i.e., the revised version of the first movement as the "Allegro appassionato, Op.4"--how did THAT happen?

I hope this helps!

After reading the other reviews here and subsequently purchasing this set, I feel that people should be warned about the audio character of the CD's. There's noise on the tracks - they were recorded in '74. And the piano has a dry "bite" that distracted me. I was hoping for a soft romantic sound. I couldn't fully appreciate the performances because of these issues. The price is nice; however, if you are just looking for Grade A recordings to fill the Scriabin gap in your collection, this set might not satisfy.

A fine, inexpensive 5-CD set--but it's NOT the complete non-sonata piano works. For the 3 Etudes op. 65, 2 Poems op. 71, poem Vers la Flamme op. 72, 2 Dances op. 73, and 5 Preludes op. 74, you need the accompanying 2-CD set SCRIABIN: COMPLETE SONATAS, which consists of the 10 numbered piano sonatas, 2 posthumous piano sonatas, and opp. 65 and 71-4.

Unfortunately, this cycle of Scriabin's complete piano music will be panned by many people solely on the basis of its barbaric piano sound. In my opinion, however, the piano Ponti uses on these recordings - whataver it is and whichever landfill he dug it out of - is one of the series' greatest merits. Finally there is a pianist willing to approach Scriabin's music outside of the Chopin box. The sound is rather like one of John Cage's "prepared pianos," except that it is being used here in the service of legitamate music. It sounds like it is constantly being pushed beyond its physical limitations, producing a savage, hellfire-and-brimstone result. Another, obviously more conventional-thinking reviewer, had reservations about the scrapy, abrasive high end of this piano; when I first put the CD on and heard this, I felt like I finally understood what Scriabin was all about: madness, and lots and lots of fire.

There is much to recommend this set. It is cheap. It is (I believe) the only complete set of Scriabin's solo piano music (I refer to this five-CD set and its companion two-CD set of the sonatas). The two-CD set includes the posthumously published Sonata in Eb minor, which, while still accepting of such prelapsarian concepts as tonality, still manages to put a smile on my face. Ponti's playing is better than others have made it out to be: you just have to get past your prejudices about what piano music should sound like to hear it. This is just one of those recordings that makes its own rules and wins. Well worth the money.

The wide divergence of review comments about this CD set reflects the difference of opinion and preference for how Scriabin's music should be played. As a member of the Scriabin Society of America, I've personally seen and heard many different interpretations of many of the etutes, preludes and other pieces in this large set ... I've also heard many strong opinions voiced both pro and con these various performances.

In the end, it all comes down to whether you like your Scriabin lean and taut, or prefer him broad and expansive. I come down on the "lean" side, which is why I enjoy these performances. Michael Ponti misses some notes here and there, but when your Scriabin is almost going off the edge, that's what happens. Scriabin should never sound "pretty" in the manner of Chopin, which is where so many pianists get it wrong. Yes, he owed much to Chopin, Balakirev and other pianist-composers, but that was merely the jumping off place for Scriabin as he plunged headlong into the 20th Century. Yes, there are moments of sheer exquisiteness to savor, but ultimately Scriabin's is music that stretches the bounds of tonality and rattles the structural cage, trying to break free.

When you listen to this set, you'll discover that not all of Scriabin's compositions are top-drawer (no big surprise when you consider the massive number of works he composed over many years). And it's also true that when one single pianist is tackling it all, not every interpretation is going to be equally inspired. But once you've heard Ponti's special way with these pieces -- bright piano and all -- you'll never again be satisfied with a merely "correct" or "poised" reading. That's selling Scriabin WAY too short ... but it's what 80% of the other pianists do. (Oh yeah, but they might get all the notes correct.)

Be sure to purchase this set along with the companion 2-CD set of the complete sonatas that also includes a few late, late works. Ponti's performances of the sonatas are even more effective, IMHO.

Michael Ponti's Scriabin survey is one of the great lost opportunities in the history of recorded classical music. Several other reviewers have already pointed out the main pros and cons of this 5-disc box set--above all that Ponti is an accomplished Scriabin pianist, that his playing is often unfinished here, that the Vox sonics are absolutely horrific, and that the billed 'complete' collection only becomes so together with the Complete Sonatas twofer.

What I would like to add is the following: Concerning the disastrous sound, which belongs to amongst the worst I have heard in stereo, I fear that Eurisko Lontano may well be accurate in his remarkable remarks posted under Dace Gisclard's review of the Sonatas--'the pianist was forced to use an UPRIGHT piano, and often slept on the floor between recording session[s]'. Indeed, the sound is just too awful to have originated from a proper grand piano, which is why the upright piano explanation makes a great deal of sense. Nonetheless, even when disregarding the often sloppy execution and the near-unlistenable sound, Ponti's Scriabin playing is at best frustratingly variable.

In a world where Scriabin's music remains largely neglected and misunderstood, Ponti filled a vast gap for several decades. Gordon Fergus-Thompson started a rival survey on ASV in 1993; he recorded the complete Etudes, Preludes, Mazurkas and six Sonatas before ASV was bought by Sanctuary Classics and eventually eaten up by Universal, which pulled the plug on the project (although it can still be read on the Sanctuary website that 'Gordon Fergus-Thompson will soon complete his recording of the complete works of Scriabin for ASV'). However, considering the overall poor quality of the playing--sluggish, unidiomatic and virtually deprived of intensity--it was not until two years ago that Ponti was rivalled and surpassed by Maria Lettberg. Indeed, it is fair to say that on all grounds, Ponti's Scriabin survey is now eclipsed by Lettberg's meticulously prepared, admirably executed and well-recorded 9-disc box set on Austrian Capriccio.

I believe Ponti's most successful contribution is the Etudes on the second disc. Granted, there are several moments of rather unpolished, even harsh, playing. On the other hand, the erratic quality, at least partly originating from the recording conditions, adds a nervous dimension that actually suits this music quite well. Regrettably, the very same quality suits the Preludes, Mazurkas and Morceaux less well--too often sounding rushed, unprepared and generic. What is so frustrating, though, is that there are a number of really good performances intermingled with rather awful ones. For instance, the forth disc opens with at the same time fiery and subtle performances of the Op 21 Polonaise and the Op 22 Preludes; then comes the Op 25 Mazurkas which more often than not sounds as though being sight-read; the Op 27 Preludes sound loud and hesitant, respectively; and the masterly Op 28 B-minor Fantaisie gets an outright brutal reading, about as harsh as approximate; as from around track 20 the piano goes out of tune--and so does Ponti in his grand volatility.

All the same, there are a number of throughout great performances that deserve special mention together with the above-noted Etudes: a truly passionately done Op 4 Allegro Appassionato, a most exquisite rendition of the Op 9 Prelude & Nocturne for the left hand, some darkly beautiful versions of the two greatest Impromptus, Opp 12/2 & 14/2, and a blazing Op 18 Allegro de concert.

REFERENCE: Lettberg

Pick up a copy of the somewhat eccentric biography of Scriabin by Bowers, and settle in with this fabulous tribute to Scriabin's piano miniatures, and lose yourself in the incredible intensity that this composer could bring to the tiniest little piano study. Every piece is concentrated sound poetry, and a five CD set is almost too much to bear.

I've heard many different approaches to Scriabin's piano music, and that's actually part of the delight in hearing any performance -- the music seems to draw out the personality of the performer in a most astonishing way, and Michael Ponti is ready and able to give us expert performances.

You may want to hear other performers as well, but Ponti really serves this music with exceptional style.

I was excited to purchase an almost complete set of Scriabin's piano works, and for the breath there is nothing else that compares to this album. The price is small considering you'll be getting 5 CD's of the majority of Scriabin's piano works. However, the scale is about all the CD set has in its favor.
The piano is horribly bright, sounding almost like a toy. Also, as the other revies mension, there is significant noise on the tracks because it was remastered from audio cassette. However, the noise is does not detract from the performance much and is more of a constant annoyance than an obstacle to hearing the playing. However, the playing isn't spectacular either. Ponti gets fairly sloppy at times (though, to be fair, Scriabin is very difficult to play). Also, I do not agree with his interpretations of many pieces (of course, that is purely personal preference whereas sloppy technique is not).
To summarize, the playing by many other pianists of Scrianbin is superior. If you only want one or two Scriabin songs and they happen to be famous, you can probably find them on a different CD. I would only but this set if one was looking for the complete works.

Ponti's piano is unusually bright and sparkling. This however, is ideally suited to Scriabin's music. Ponti explores fully Scriabin's vibrant and often complex rhythms. Ponti has an amazing technique and it almost sounds as if he is losing control in some of the very demanding pieces, especially the etudes. This has the effect of enhancing the excitement of the music.
A cheap but really good purchase.