The first three of Scriabinâs ten published sonatas are in a Romantic style, reminiscent of Chopin and Liszt, but undoubtedly with Scriabin´s unique voice present from the beginning.
The brief Fourth Sonata marks an important transition for the composer: musically, he was moving ever closer toward atonality, while his personal life was marked by the deepening complexity of his theosophical ponderings.
Beginning with the fifth, Scriabin´s sonatas have no key signature and consist of only a single movement. The Seventh Sonata, Scriabinâs own favourite and nicknamed âThe White Massâ, stands on the threshold of serialism.
With the ninth, so-called "Black Mass Sonata", Scriabinâs journey to his own particular brand of atonality is complete. The violence and menacing harmonies of this sonata, whose colourful subtitle is the composer´s own, are said to have shocked and frightened even the composer himself.
