Piano Sonata No.7 ''White Mass'' - Alexander Scriabin

Performed by Arcadi Volodos. I - Prophétique - Mystérieusement sonore - Avec une sombre majesté - Avec une céleste volupté - Trés pur, avec une profounde douceur - Impérieux - Mystérieusement sonore - Poco meno vivo - Animé, ailé - Très animé, ailé - Étincelant - Trés pur, avec douceur - Onduleux, insinuant - Avec trouble - Tres doux, joyeux, étincelant - Vol joyeux - Impérieux - Subito meno vivo - Plus en plus sonore et animé - Comme des éclairs (molto più vivo) - Tempo I. Foudroyant - Avec une sombre majesté - Avec une céleste volupté - Trés pur, avec une profounde douceur - Mystérieusement sonore - Poco meno vivo - Animé, ailé - Avec éclat - Impérieux - Mystérieusement sonore - Avec une volupté radieuse, extatique - En un vertige (presto) - Fulgurant - Avec une joie débordante - Subito più lento - En délire: 0:00 Scriabin's Piano Sonata No.7 was composed in the winter of 1911-2, being premiered in Moscow on February 21 of 1912, performed by Scriabin himself. The piece perplexed critics of the time, with one accusing Scriabin of being "decadent and degenerate", which caused significant controversy. Scriabin loved the work and performed it on multiple occasions before his premature death in 1915, viewing it as his most perfect composition. It is written in a single movement structured in a modified sonata form. The harmony is largely "atonal" (better yet "multitonal" or "polytonal"), chords acting as independent, self-sustaining tonal centres with their own implied or expressed simultaneous "tonics". Further showing this abandonment of traditional harmony, Scriabin fully employs the octatonic scale for most of the work (as with alongside the sixth sonata), with the Mystic chord being the source of most of the thematic material. Scriabin subtitled the work as "White Mass" and considered it to be "holy". He described the sonata as being purely mystical, devoid of human feeling and emotional lyricism. There is no explicit program nor poem that accompanies the work, but it is clear the work was inspired by a kind of celestial vision, as the French dynamic and tempo marks suggest; "Prophétique" (Prophetic), "avec une sombre majesté" (with sombre majesty), "Avec une céleste volupté" (with heavenly delight), "Trés pur, avec une profounde douceur" (very pure, with profound sweetness), "Avec une volupté radieuse, extatique" (with radiant, ecstatic delight) "and Avec une joie débordante" (brimming over with joy). The work can be viewed as both the brother and the antithesis of Scriabin's previous sonata, which was described as "frightening … dark and mysterious, impure, dangerous". While spiritually they are diametrically the opposite of each other, both are very similar in regards to harmony, structure and material, such as imperious, mysterious, flight and delirious dance-like motives. In a private conversation with Leonid Sabaneyev, Scriabin further associated the sonata with the smell of perfumes, mystical clouds, flight and the light of the sun. The composer also connected the work with the Mysterium, a production of total art that would transform the human race. The work begins with an intense and agitated main theme built on three elements; an imperious two-note ascending motive, a slower and more mysterious idea, and a four-note solemn motive on the right hand, sustained by the imperious one on the left hand. The second theme is sensuous and full of voluptuosity, then interrupted by the imperious and mysterious motives in a sudden forte. The second theme then unfolds with a new motive on the top that moves in a step-wise motion, which seems to represent flight. Meanwhile, the imperious motive still briefly peeks from the low register. In the development section, all the themes and motives are transformed with increasing complexity and intensity, executing a prodigious ballet in which imitations, accelerations, and rising and falling arpeggiated figures succeed one another. The music culminates in an imperious and dramatic climax, leading directly into a thunderous recapitulation of the material, with the flight motive becoming more prevalent over the second theme. This motive then leads to the furious return of the imperious motive, followed by the rest of the material in what seems like a second development. The delightful motive then leads to an even more agitated and delirious climax, before a vertiginous coda launches and culminates in a fortissimo 25-note arpeggiated chord, like a rippling flash of blinding light. The second theme briefly reappears before dissolving with quickly ascending trills representing "enervation and nonexistence after the act of love." Picture: "Six-winged Seraph (Azrael)" (1904) by the Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel. Sources: https://tinyurl.com/2yj8qe43, https://tinyurl.com/2abt5ve7, https://tinyurl.com/25hkztf3, https://tinyurl.com/24cd8md3, https://tinyurl.com/285xj2tc and Faubion Bower's book (pages 230-5) To check the score: https://tinyurl.com/2awhwxhv