PIANOFORTE MUSIC OF SCRIABIN
Played by LILIAS MACKINNON
Study in B
Study in B Minor Oa
Study in G Sharp Minor Op. 8
Study in A J Study in F Sharp
Study in C Sharp Minor Study No. 3, Op. 65
SCRIABIN'S first period was that of a disciple of Chopin, a volume of whose works the young composer put beneath his pillow while he slept. His second period dated from the beginning of this century, when he was caught up in the vague religious, philosophical and aesthetic ideas which spread as a movement through Russia. At this point Scriabin developed the strange esoteric theories which caused him to be labelled as a mystic and which he sought to express and interpret in his compositions. Opus 8, a set of twelve studies, dates from 1895, when Scriabin was about twenty - three. They call for no particular remark, excepting that the G Sharp Minor piece is a study in octaves and the one in A a study in sixths. With the eight studies of Opus 42, however, we are in the second period ; Chopin is not altogether eliminated, but is giving way to a robuster Scriabin. Opus 65'consists also of studies, one in ninths, one in sevenths, both very difficult, and the one now to be played, in fifths. There are no key signatures andithe notation is enharmonic.