Valery Gergiev conducts revelatory performances of Scriabin’s Symphony No 3 ‘The Divine Poem’ and Symphony No 4 ‘The Poem of Ecstasy’. This marks the first in a new cycle of Scriabin symphonies, and one of the most significant of all Valery Gergiev’s projects with the London Symphony Orchestra, released during his final tenure as LSO Principal Conductor. Anyone with musical curiosity will welcome the chance to explore such an idiosyncratic composer.

Scriabin’s Symphony No 3 was composed not long after the composer had arrived at a philosophy that exalted the individual ego and the senses. The piece, which has also been referred to as a tone poem in three movements, was Scriabin’s attempt to give expression to the evolution of the human spirit. For Scriabin, the finale of his Third Symphony marked a significant moment in his development as a composer, and he wrote that ‘this was the first time I found light in music… the first time I knew intoxication, flight, the breathlessness of happiness’.

It was whilst composing his Third Symphony that Scriabin began to look ahead to a Fourth and by 1906 he had published a poem which set out the ‘philosophical programme’ of the new work. The work’s title refers to an artistic ecstasy, which is expressed in the music through a beautifully coloured sound-world and harmonic fluidity, culminating in the final section with the revelation of C major.

Valery Gergiev says of the composer; ‘Scriabin is a Great Russian composer… He’s clearly a composer with his own voice, from his own world. Scriabin came up with very much his own sonority and his ability to hear different colours was legendary. Scriabin should be today understood as a man who was able to create a wonderfully magical musical world, and we just have to give in. We have to be imprisoned by these compositions and the magical powers of the creator.’

Composer Alexander Scriabin
Conductor Valery Gergiev
Performers London Symphony Orchestra

Symphony No 3 'The Divine Poem'
1. I. Luttes
2. II. Voluptés
3. III. Jeu divin

4. Symphony No 4 'The Poem of Ecstasy' 

Release Date 30 October 2015
LSO0771 | 822231177128

Producer James Mallinson
Engineers Classic Sound Ltd
Recorded 13 April 2014 (Symphony No 3) & 30 March 2014 (Symphony No 4), Barbican, London

DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording

Booklet in English, French & German

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