Eccentric in his mystical beliefs, the Russian composer Scriabin, a virtuoso pianist, wrote some two hundred piano compositions, during the course of his short life, in addition to his massively orchestrated symphonies and orchestral works. In his 23 Mazurkas Scriabin develops further the tradition of Chopin, who first invested the Polish dance with a poetic quality of its own. Scriabin’s first Mazurkas date from his adolescence and the last pair were written in 1903.