Scriabin’s cycle of Piano Sonatas is one of the most visionary and dramatic in the canon. The First dates from 1892, written at a time of crisis in his life, and is a passionate, emotionally unstable work, whilst No. 4, completed over a decade later, embodies the new developments in his stylistic armoury. The Eighth was the last of the ten to be completed, and it approaches the zenith of Scriabin’s art in its intricacy, poetry and complex tapestry of textures. The Poèmes and Morceaux represent, in even more concentrated form, the harmonic allure of Scriabin’s writing. The youngest ever laureate of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1994, and winner of the 2007 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Alexander Ghindin has established himself as a major pianist of distinction.