SCRIABIN: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 in F minor, 6, 7 “White Mass,” 10 – Boris Bekhterev, p. – Camerata CMCD-28151, 67:40 [Distr. by Albany] ****:
The ten Scriabin piano sonatas are a fairly compact (usually two CDs) survey in miniature of the composer’s stylistic development from a strong Chopin influence thru a sort of stoned-Lisztian chromaticism, to a wild obsessive creepiness in the last sonatas from the probably mentally-unbalanced Russian keyboard genius.
Here are four of the set of ten, beginning with the very first, composed in 1892 when the composer had injured his right hand. Though not part of the works written for Left Hand Alone, there is plenty of activity in the left hand here, as though Scriabin was trying out some ideas he would later use in his Op. 9 pieces for the left hand. The Sixth Sonata was written in Paris the same year (1905) as the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin in St. Petersburg, presaging the coming downfall of imperial Russia. The “White Mass” sonata is an ecstatic, trancelike work in one movement.
Camerata’s crystalline sonics are apparent on this disc vs. the set of all ten sonatas on Harmonia mundi by Robert Taub. The latter’s piano sounds just a bit tinny compared to Bekhterev, but Taub realizes much more of the delirious, emotional, over-the-top quality of later Scriabin than does Bekhterev. Of course Horowitz and Ashkenazy still have a corner on Scriabin interpretation, which neither Taub nor Bekhterev surpass.
– John Sunier
