SCRIABIN, ALEXANDER  BIOGRAPHY

A friend and fellow-student of Rachmaninov in Moscow, the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin enjoyed a very different and much shorter career, at first as a concert pianist, with the encouragement of Belyayev, who published his earlier compositions. His interest in philosophy and the theosophical theories of Madame Blavatsky influenced the later form of his composition, particularly the larger scale orchestral works, while his later piano music explores new musical territory. His life was vitiated by a growing self-absorption, coupled with eccentricity of beliefs.

Orchestral Music

Scriabin enjoyed early success with his 1896 Piano Concerto. Of greater significance, however, are the later works, Symphony No. 3 "Le divin poème", Le poème de l'éxtase and Prométhée, Le poème du feu.

Piano Music

Scriabin's earliest piano music was written while he was a student at the Moscow Conservatory, leading to a final series of five sonatas starting in 1911. The remaining seven sonatas cover the years from 1886 until 1907. Other shorter piano pieces include studies, preludes and impromptus, in a style that develops from the influence of Chopin to a sensuous idiom entirely his own.