Customer Reviews

The Complete Preludes and Etudes for Pianoforte Solo (Dover Music for Piano)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Scriabin was a contemporary of Rachmaninoff, in fact, he studied under the same teacher. Like Rachmaninoff, he was a bridge composer between the late Romantic and the 20th Century period. He was far more modern, in fact, than Rachmaninoff, though his early works were profoundly influenced by Chopin (Rachmaninoff less so--he was influenced by Chopin but also Tchaikovsky.)

Despite the fact both composers shared Russian heritage and a love of the piano, Rachmaninoff did not admire Scriabin's works, saying he had gone off in a wrong direction. While I love Rachmaninoff's piano works intensely, I have to say that he was really wrong about Scriabin. This is some of the most gorgeous, introspective, Impressionist piano music ever written.

Scriabin had a tragically short life, yet he composed quite a number of etudes, preludes, sonatas and other short piano works. Dover has done a huge favor by putting all the preludes and etudes into a single volume. There is enough material here for years of exploration into the music of a piano master. The edition is a compact volume that manages to sit well on the piano music stand, and the music print is clear and easy to read.

Scriabin's preludes and etudes represent everything from Scriabin's early days through to the final ones. The preludes etudes show such a wide variety of styles and colors of such a wide variety of difficulties (from very easy preludes to some extremely demanding etudes) that this book would give anyone years of beautiful music to study.

Many pianists and aspiring musicians tend to categorize Scriabin as a "2nd-tier" composer, ignoring all but a few of his works (such as his etudes Op. 8 No. 12 and Op. 42 No. 5, both included in this volume). Before purchasing this volume (and the sonatas and miscellaneous pieces), I was under this false impression as well; however, the more Scriabin I play, the more I am convinced of his incredible innovation, creativity, and talent for writing thoroughly profound music in a matter of a few dozen bars.

After having read through most of the book, and having seriously studied a fair number of the works within, I tend to be thoroughly dissatisfied with most performances of his music - I believe that the lack of color and architecture in many modern performances of his music make it sound shallow and boring; thus the general lack of interest in his music.

For such a cheap price, I would implore any pianist or piano student to purchase this volume and discover Scriabin for themselves. It's the best ten bucks I've ever spent.

c l e a r a n d s i m p l e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f s c r i a b i n ' s m u s i c

This is a good book because it is virtually the only complete set of Scriabin preludes I could find. The binding leaves a bit too be desired but all in all not a bad edition. The music it contains is five stars. Scriabin is one of my favorite piano composers.

Scriabin was one of the supreme composers of the piano. This book is treasure trove for any serious lover of piano music. If he composed nothing but his Etude No.5, he would still be immortal. You can hear it for free here: www.myspace.com/kristijankraljevic