Scriabin Mistery

Chopin, Scriabin - Preludes - Igor Zhukov (1991)
EAC Rip | FLAC (img + cue), LOG | TT 65:27 | Covers (jpg 300 dpi) | RAR 203 MB (3% Recovery)
Melodiya | USSR | SUCD 10-00108 | 1991

Igor Zhukov graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire in 1960 (piano class of Professor H. Neuhaus). The pianist is a laureate of the International M. Long Competition in Paris (1957). He is widely known in the Soviet Union and abroad appearing with concerts as a soloist, in ensembles.

Alexander Scriabin, whose 150th anniversary we celebrated in 2022, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, one year his junior, were rivals at the Moscow Conservatory as students in both piano and composition. At the piano final exam in 1891, Rachmaninoff was awarded first prize and Scriabin second – it’s fascinating just to imagine what this rivalry between music history’s most famous classmates had been like. Subsequently, they went their separate ways; in particular, Scriabin became drawn to Nietzsche’s Übermensch theory and Blavatsky’s theosophy and his musical style changed drastically, leading to his so-called music of mysticism with the heavy use of progressive harmonies.

It may seem unlikely that Nikolai Roslavets would have consciously composed works in imitation of Alexander Scriabin, so that both composers would have pieces that could be matched up, title for title, as they are on this album by pianist Anya Alexeyev. But once one hears the music, the influence of Scriabin is obvious and omnipresent, so such a gesture on Roslavets' part as naming and numbering his pieces after Scriabin's doesn't seem farfetched. Roslavets' Two Poems, Five Preludes, and Three Etudes correspond to the identically named Scriabin works, which are paired here, and …….

Blair Sanderson @ Allmusic