Overview
Introduction
Alexander Scriabin completed his 3 Etudes, Op. 65 for solo piano in 1912. These etudes are exercises for the performer to show his or her command of perfect fifths, major sevenths, and ninths, in inverse order. His own technique was flawless, and his hands particularly small, compounding the difficulty of his own playing to no small degree. The fact that he could play these pieces with comparative ease is beyond astonishing. What he accomplished with these three studies for piano is also compositionally impressive, though not quite miraculous. With a reduced palette that is necessary in order emphasize the interval under scrutiny, Scriabin managed to wring substantial poetry from the exercises. Two composers whose work seems to have influenced Scriabin, Debussy and Chopin, had done this before. Both Frenchmen, especially Chopin, were fixated on writing for piano, and it was Scriabin's primary emphasis as well. This fact, coupled with Russia's fascination with French culture during this time makes for a sort of piano etude lineage. The character of Scriabin's own etudes is distinct but not a striking departure from the preceding composers. All three artists made etudes with an aesthetic that demands an effortless quality; no audible struggle is tolerable, and the music is much harder than it sounds.
Like much of Scriabin's successful, late-period music, these etudes contain an indelible sense of cosmic interest. The ascending runs in all three etudes tend to rise to a place in the higher register where the composer weaves his signature texture of celestial implications. He is a real artist insofar as the fundamental character of his artistic voice is distinct and astonishing, even when the material is limited by the piece's genre. These charming works are clear and beautiful, pointing toward an issue that is important to all of those who are fortunate enough to come in contact with these works; when will Scriabin's music be re-evaluated and lifted from the ghettos where music by "eccentric" composers are deposited? In this state of affairs, Scriabin has become a matter of brand loyalty. People are often ashamed to admit his strengths, because most people disregard him as a lunatic. He did everything in his power to convince the world of his Superman-like qualities, and his biography reads like a how-to book on demonstrations of moronic acts of self-importance. Few of his mature works demonstrate the same sort of excess, and in fact his final few years of composing yielded mature and even breathtaking works, which sustain the listener's interest easily. These etudes are an excellent way of deciding if a pianist has the stuff that makes a musician great; they are also a way into a wondrous and much maligned world of sound.
Parts/Movements
- Allegro fantastico in B flat major
- Allegretto in C sharp major
- Molto vivace in G major
