Customer Reviews

Scriabin: le Poème De L'Extase/Piano Concerto/Prometheus

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

 

 

Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to this CD at a local college listening library. I had heard the recordings before, but I wanted to refresh the works in my mind because they are such important works in the musical repertoire.

Vladimir Ashkenazy gives great, emotional performances of the Scriabin Piano Concerto in F-sharp Minor and "Prometheus." His playing is deep, insightful, romantic, and powerful.

Ashkenazy plays the Piano Concerto with power and dramatic flair. His technique is formidable, but it never reached the level of, say, Murray Perahia, Radu Lupu or Krystian Zimerman. Not all the notes are clear, and Ashkenazy tends to get loud and "bangy" many times. However, his forces at key climaxes is usually warranted. Maazel and the orchestra give beautiful, powerful, expert accompaniments. Their sound is full and red-blooded. Unfortunately, the mono sound does not do justice to the performance, and the acoustic is a bit blurred and stuffy.

Maazel and the orchestra give an expert reading of the "Poem of Ecstasy." It brings out the strange, mystical harmonies that fascinated and occupied Scriabin. Maazel does an excellent job leading the orchestra through the quiet, mysterious beginning to the end, a spectacular, climax rarely encountered in music. You must hear it to believe it. It is completely over the top!! The solo trumpet, flute, and violin are outstanding.

"Promotheus" is giving a very convincing reading. Of course, Ashkenazy plays the piano part, and his contribution is great. Maazel and the players do a fantastic job bringing out the orchestral textures and bizarre Scriabin harmonies. It is another incredible musical experience.

Overall, I highly recommend this CD. I wrote a review on the Anatol Ugorski/Pierre Boulez recording of these same works. I have a definite preference for the Ugorski/Boulez performances, but these are wonderful, perhaps essential, too. Ashkenazy and Maazel emphasize power, emotion, and sonic output, while Ugorski and Boulez emphasize clarity, musical line, and precision. The choice is yours.

Superb playing from Ashkenazy in the concerto - tender and warm in the center movement, harsh and angular where called for - and wonderful conducting from Maazel in the bigger two numbers. Especially hair-raising is the "poem of ecstasy", pairing the Cleveland Orchestra's amazing technique with Maazel's pounding passion and x-ray precision. Thrilling music, thrillingly recorded. Don't bother to buy another.

I must regret the incredible forgetfulness that still seems to persist in which concerns the imminent release of the most superb version ever made of this Concerto under the prodigious hands and artistic commitment offered by the legendary Austrian pianist Paul Badura Skoda in the Fifties directed by Rodzinski the Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra. I still keep a copy in vinyl and I will have to make my own transfer to CD format.

In this sense the offered performance of Ashkenazy is a very worthy version that remains to a considerable distance from the 'previously commented version. There is something undefined in the craft of this consecrated pianist, maybe his excess of intellectualism and rigid coldness interpretative, but this Scriabin Concert needs to be played with ardor and vital sensitivity, the Romanticism approach does not fit accurately in the conception of this work, because the Romantic Russian mood includes besides an invisible nostalgia that needs to be underlined despite it is not visible at the score, but that guarantees the adequate achievement, and despite I am not a musician, this opinion is supported by the wide domain of his entire piano works that somehow give us some determining clues.

Go for this in absence of Paul Badura Skoda performance.

The rest of the CD is very intersting. Maazel 's steeled approach fits accurately in this case.

Hot stuff-- absolutely thrilling performances with all the big, speaker-busting impact you want from the climaxes, but beautiful restraint in the soft sections. Superior playing from orchestra, pianist and chorus-- one of my favorite CDs.

Scriabin: le Poème De L'Extase/Piano Concerto/Prometheus is originally a 1971 Decca Record Company Limited recording starring pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. Lorin Maazel leads first the Cleveland Orchestra on piece number one then London Philharmonic Orchestra on the remaining tracks. Sound quality is superb even though the recording is over 40 years old. Edward Garden has written the music notes. Highly recommended indeed. 5/5.