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Track(s) taken from CDA67988

Poème, Op 41

composer
1903; quaver = 96-104; Agitato con passione

Garrick Ohlsson (piano)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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Recording details: December 2013
Henry Wood Hall, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: February 2015
Total duration: 4 minutes 46 seconds

Cover artwork: The Cloud (1902). Arthur Hacker (1858-1919)
© Bradford Art Galleries and Museums, West Yorkshire / Bridgeman Images
 

Reviews

‘Today [Scriabin] enjoys a near classic status and Garrick Ohlsson’s disc of the complete Poèmes provides ample food for thought … his playing now reflects rich experience and musical quality … his empathy with so many fragmented dreamscapes is lucid and sensitive’ (Gramophone)

‘Scriabin's microcosmic soundworlds, powered by chains of augmented and chromatically liquefied harmonies, require a transcendental technique and the ability to conjure up simultaneously myriad differentiated sounds and textures. Ohlsson possesses remarkable facility … unleashes immense reserves of power … has the required delicacy of touch’ (BBC Music Magazine)» More
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING

‘Effortless virtuosity and total musical command’ (The Guardian)» More

‘Ohlsson plays with appropriate accuracy and wide gradations of touch. He uses the sustaining pedal sparingly and the damper to best effect where the phrasing calls for a firm staccato. His rhythmic control is excellent …’ (Audiophile Audition, USA)

‘Ohlsson, the pianistic prestidigitator, pulls it off again; a fine start to this centenary year’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘Ohlsson need fear no comparisons. He has the technique for this music and sounds entirely in sympathy with it’ (MusicWeb International)» More

‘Ohlsson brings to these performances a clarity and level-headedness that perfectly complements the intoxicating power of Scriabin's music, and his exceptionally wide reach means that none of the technical demands are beyond his capability’ (The Europadisc Review)» More

‘Alexander Scriabin produced a steady torrent of miniatures between writing monumental pieces. American pianist Garrick Ohlsson gives an insight into the composer’s inner world in scintillating accounts of these varied Poèmes which were written over more than a decade’ (The Northern Echo)

«Grâce au pianiste américain, on entre à pas feutrés dans l'univers des Poèmes de Scriabine. La dimension fantastique et littéraire prend forme doucement dans un son rond et épais. Comme si par les couleurs de son Steinway, Garrick Ohlsson cherchait les diffractions lumineuses des poèmes orchestraux» (Classica, France)» More

„Ohlsson wird auch nie sentimental, versucht nicht, die Musik programmlich auszudeuten, wovor Scriabins erster Biograph, der Komponist und Schriftsteller Evgeny Gunst ja ausdrücklich gewarnt hat … alles in allem kann man schlussfolgern: so soll Scriabin klingen!“ (Pizzicato, Luxembourg)» More

„Garrick Ohlsson is an ideal interpreter of Scriabin’s music. With rather quick tempi, an unfailing sense for nuances and contrasts he always suggests that Scriabin was not a dreamer but a man living on the end of his nerves“ (Pizzicato, Luxembourg)

„Wenn man die Poèmes … einzeln oder paarweise hört, dann erkennt man, welch grandioser Interpret Ohlsson für diese Werke ist“ (Piano News, Germany)» More
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
In the Op 41 Poème, the last of the 1903 group, restless chromatic movement produces the effect of ‘altered’ harmonies increasingly beloved by Scriabin, although at this stage a resolution to the tonic is always reached. The insistent rising sixths of the melodic line express the upward striving and transcendent attitude of mind which were also tending increasingly to characterize both Scriabin’s personality and his music.

from notes by Simon Nicholls © 2015

Dans le Poème op.41, le dernier de 1903, un mouvement chromatique nerveux produit l’effet d’harmonies «altérées» de plus en plus cher à Scriabine, même si, à ce stade, une résolution à la tonique ne manque pas de survenir. Les obstinées sixtes montantes de la ligne mélodique traduisent l’effort ascendant et l’attitude transcendante de l’esprit qui tendirent également à toujours plus caractériser la personnalité et la musique de Scriabine.

extrait des notes rédigées par Simon Nicholls © 2015
Français: Hypérion

In dem Poème op. 41, das letzte Stück der 1903 Werkgruppe, sorgt unablässige chromatische Bewegung für einen Eindruck von „alterierten“ Harmonien, die Skrjabin immer mehr faszinierten, obwohl hier die Auflösung zur Tonika noch stets erfolgt. Die insistierenden aufsteigenden Sexten der melodischen Linien drücken die aufwärts strebende und jenseitige Haltung aus, die sowohl Skrjabins Werk als auch seine Persönlichkeit zunehmend charakterisierten.

aus dem Begleittext von Simon Nicholls © 2015
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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