Alexander Scriabin(1872-1915)
Complete Mazurkas
10 Mazurkas, Op. 3 (1888-1890)
9 Mazurkas, Op. 25 (1898-1899)
2 Mazurkas, Op. 40 (1903)
Eric Le Van, piano
Recorded in Studio 2 of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich, April 2002
Music & Arts 1125 [72:39]
Comparisons: Ponti/Vox - Pizarro/Collins - Feinberg/Scriabin/Russian Season
I intended Part 5 to be a review of the complete recordings of Scriabin's
Preludes, but the lack of engagement in the Scriabin soundworld from the
pianists has had me in a holding pattern. As it happens, Music & Arts
sent me an advance copy of the new recording of Scriabin's Mazurkas from
Eric Le Van.
To recap a little, I reviewed in Part 4 the Mazurkas recordings from
Artur Pizarro, Marta Deyanova, Beatrice Long, and Gordon Fergus-Thompson.
I found the Pizarro interpretations the best of the four, and the
Fergus-Thompson performances to suck the life out of the dance rhythms
through extremely slow tempos and dour disposition. Although quite slow,
Pizarro displayed a fine sense of the dances with rich, well-projected,
and involving interpretations.
Subsequent to the Part 4 review, I had the good fortune to acquire the
Michael Ponti reissued recordings of Scriabin's piano music (7 discs
in two volumes). From my perspective, Ponti surpasses Pizarro in his
interpretation of the Mazurkas. He is more vibrant and certainly offers
the rhythmic freedom that Scriabin was so concerned about when others
performed his music. With great rhythmic bounce, ample melancholy, and
the crucial bedrock of tension that makes Scriabin's emotional outbursts
so natural and involving, Ponti's performances get my seal of approval.
The recorded sound isn't wonderful, and bass notes can be too abrasive.
Still, none of that diminishes Ponti's impact on this listener. Later
in my Scriabin review project, I will cover these 7 excellent Vox discs.
Now, Eric Le Van has the opportunity to show if he's inside Scriabin's
compelling and beautiful world of self-absorption and dysfunction. The
liner notes reveal that John Bell Young, the noted Scriabin scholar,
thinks very highly of Le Van. Young is quoted as saying of Le Van,
"Terrific! He is a Scriabinist to the manor born".
I should relate that John Bell Young and I have corresponded some
in the past, and I have learned a great deal about Scriabin from his
expert counsel, speeches, and articles. Mr. Young talks about being a
Scriabinist. Just what is a Scriabinist? Can a pianist well convey the
music without being one?
In the interest of time, I'll only offer short and simple answers. A
Scriabinist has tapped into the psychology of the composer and his music
through study and the performing/listening process. As an example, study
tells us that Scriabin was very critical of how others played his music.
He complained that most pianists didn't offer the rhythmic elasticity
his music required and were too heavy. He insisted that his works needed
frequently changing fluctuations in speed to reflect his frequently
changing moods, etc. We also know that Scriabin played his own music
in the same manner in which he talked about it, because there are recorded
documents of his performances.
All the above might appear to be bring up the issue of whether Scriabin
was the best judge of how to interpret and convey his compositions.
Personally, I think this isn't an issue at all. If you want to hear the
real Scriabin through other artists, those artists will have to play in
the Scriabinist style - they will have to employ Scriabin's soundworld.
You might personally enjoy a different type of interpretation, but you
won't be enjoying Scriabin because you won't really be listening to *his*
music. We can't be sure how Bach wanted his works to be played, but we
are on solid ground with Scriabin.
What is the Scriabin soundworld? Well, there are many elements to it,
and I likely am aware of just a small percentage of them. Perhaps the
most crucial element to keep in mind is the tension in his music. Whether
it's a symphony, etude, mazurka, sonata, or prelude, the weight of
Scriabin's tension is tremendous in its impact. Playing the music with
an insufficient amount is the 'kiss of death'.
Cross-rhythms are another big part of Scriabin's soundworld. They
create interest, beauty, and much of the tension in his music. How about
melancholy? You won't find a composer more melancholy than Scriabin,
and he offers sadness that pierces the heart at every turn. Suspended
notes are an integral part of the soundworld and need to be well-projected
with enticing inflection. As mentioned above, rhythmic elasiticity of
both the horizontal and vertical variety are important ingredients;
vertical elasticity is one of the features I love about Ponti's Scriabin.
Then we have all those emotional outbursts that Scriabin indulges in.
Where do they musically come from? - the tension, sadness, and
cross-rhythms. If the pianist doesn't convey these three elements, the
outbursts have no meaning. There are a host of other qualities to look
for including the sudden mood shifts, variety of tempo and dynamics, and
a subtle joy that is entirely unfettered and even naive.
Lastly, there is the matter of spacing. Scriabin didn't take kindly to
his music being played with empty spaces. He used spacing to carry-over
the previous thought and act as a conduit for the next one. Slowish
performances of Scriabin's music run the risk of cluttering the musical
landscape with emptiness, and that's what I most dislike about
Fergus-Thompson's readings.
Does Scriabin sound better when all the above features are covered? You
bet he does, because not to convey these elements makes Scriabin sound
no better than dozens of other composers of his time period. Also, his
music tends to become generic in the worst sense of the 'international
style'.
I haven't even mentioned the mystical and atonal aspects of Scriabin's
later years. Suffice it to say that he was reaching for a solution to
the universe that only involved himself; he was the edge of the envelope
as well as its center. Hence, I titled this review project "Scriabin -
A Circle of One".
Well, I've certainly been hitting the byways of this review and should
tell you a few things about Le Van's background. He was born in Los
Angeles and started playing the piano at the age of five and the violin
when he was seven years old. As a youngster, one of his teachers was
Earle Voorhies, who learned from Alexander Siloti, who was one of Liszt's
pupils. Eventually, Le Van received a Fulbright grant to study with
Professor Karl-Heinz Kammerling in Hanover. Le Van already has a few
recordings under his belt including a highly acclaimed disc of Brahms
solo piano music. Currently, Le Van resides in France, performs often
in concert, and is the Artistic Director of the International Franz Liszt
Festival.
To give a clear idea of how Le Van treats Scriabin's Mazurkas,
reintroducing Pizarro and Ponti is just the ticket. Although both of
them are excellent, they are worlds apart in their approaches. Ponti
is quick and light on his feet with exuberant rhythmic patterns and
exceptional vertical elasticity. Pizarro is quite slow and rich with
outstanding articulation and freely flowing rhythms. Ponti places high
priority on clarity and detail of inner voices, while Pizarro follows
the long line of the music.
If we think of Ponti and Pizarro as occupying opposite ends of a musical
spectrum, Eric Le Van is positioned right in the middle. His clarity
and detail is greater than Pizarro's but less well defined than Ponti's.
The Le Van tempos are in the mid-point along with his vertical elasiticty
and rhythmic bounce. Essentially, a look at any musical feature will
show Le Van's approach to be moderate.
Of course, being of moderate approach doesn't tell us anything about the
artist's effectiveness in conveying Scriabin's soundworld. The following
is my assessment of how Le Van handles some of the basic Scriabin
parameters:
Tension - The tension Le Van applies is exceptional in every one of the
21 Mazurkas. In addition to making his performances more compelling,
the consistent urgency of his readings renders the emotional outbursts
natural and logical.
Rhythmic Elasticity - Although different listeners would have a range
of opinions concerning many of Le Van's interpretive stances, I can't
imagine anyone not agreeing that his elasicity is highly fluid with a
great sense of Scriabin's long musical lines and structural coherence.
Particularly effective is Le Van's horizontal elasticity, but the vertical
lines also stream upward enticingly.
Heaviness - As mentioned earlier in the review, Scriabin often complained
that performers of his music were simply too heavy in touch. Well, he
wouldn't be complaining about Le Van who is not heavy and never gets
bogged down. For an example of Le Van's light touch, check out the first
section of Opus 3/4 where the melody line deliciously floats over the
bed created by the lower voice.
Fluctuations in Tempo and Dynamics - Not as strong in this area as Ponti,
Le Van nevertheless displays a fine degree of changes and also well
handles the sudden nature of Scriabin's ever-changing musical landscapes.
Melancholy - Le Van recognizes that melancholy is a pervasive element
in Scriabin's music and conveys it with incisiveness and beauty. The
highly melancholic pieces such as Op. 3/3 and 3/5 are heart-stoppers
in Le Van's hands. He just seems to take to this emotional route as
naturally as a duck to water.
Add in a superb soundstage of clarity, depth, and richness, and we have
one of the most successful Scriabin piano recordings in the past few
years. It isn't an easy task to be competitive with the greatest Scriabin
pianists from the past such as Sofronitsky, Feinberg, and Scriabin
himself, but Le Van is very close and his sound is a major advantage.
Don's Conclusions: Scriabin's piano music gets only a fraction of the
exposure it deserves, and I personally point the finger at the generic
style used by most pianists of the modern era. There are likely many
folks who have formed their opinion of Scriabin from recordings along
the lines of the Piers Lane discs for Hyperion. As enjoyable as they
may be, these performances only give a sample of what Scriabin has to
offer. Eric Le Van gives us a full-course dinner of the best of Scriabin.
He is inside the great composer's psyche, and that's 90% of the battle.
Grab up this Music & Arts disc and enjoy Scriabin's unique and transcendent
soundworld conveyed by a "Scriabinist to the manor born".
Don Satz
[log in to unmask]
|
