suggested Scriabin sonata performances

[superstition2]

G# minor - Marc-André Hamelin

Eb minor - Bernd Glemser or Stephen Coombs

#1 F minor - Vladimir Ashkenazy or Robert Taub

#2 G# minor - Bernd Glemser (Sofronitsky's 1st mvmt is interesting)

#3 F# minor - Robert Taub (Horowitz, Ashkenazy, and Sofronitsky are worth hearing)

#4 F# major - Robert Taub

#5 (F# major) - Robert Taub (digital studio) and Vladimir Horowitz (analog live)

#6 - Robert Taub (digital studio) and Sviatoslav Richter (analog live)

#7 - Bernd Glemser (Laredo's is interesting)

#8 - Vladimir Ashkenazy

#9 - Bernd Glemser (digital studio), Vladimir Sofronitsky (analog), and Vladimir Horowitz (analog live)

#10 - Robert Taub (digital studio) and Vladimir Horowitz (analog live)


I have heard the following performances of the sonatas:

G# minor - Hamelin, Coombs, and Ponti

Eb minor - Glemser, Coombs, and Ponti (although Ponti doesn't play the actual 1st mvmt)

#1 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Glemser

#2 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Lvov, Bogdanov, Sofronitsky (1st mvmt)

#3 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Glemser Sofronitsky, Horowitz

#4 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Pletnev, Sofronitsky

#5 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Glemser, Horowitz

#6 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Glemser, Lvov

#7 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Glemser

#8 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin

#9 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Glemser, Bogdanov, Horowitz (2 versions), Sofronitsky

#10 - Taub, Ashkenazy, Laredo, Ogdon, Ponti, Mikhailov, Hamelin, Glemser, Pletnev, Horowitz


I've not heard Richter play any of the sonatas aside from the 6th, which he plays better than anyone else I've heard, but in a live venue with atrocious sound quality and coughing. I've heard his other Scriabin sonatas are impressive.


Ranking the sets I have:

Excellent:
1. Robert Taub (weak on the 7th, unimpressive on 8th and 9th)

Very good:
2. Vladimir Ashkenazy (not the best sound quality, particularly weak on the 7th, 10th)

Good:
3. Marc-André Hamelin (excellent performance of the 5th, but otherwise slightly lacking)

OK:
4. Ruth Laredo (brassy 70s analog, poor 5th, strong 7th, good 1st)

Marginal:
5. Mikhailov (I've only listened to this set once, but none of the performances grabbed me or annoyed me.)

Poor:
6. Ponti (bad sound quality, very coarse playing with some wrong notes)
7. Ogdon (bad interpretations, coarse playing, wrong notes, mediocre sound quality, decent op. 74 preludes)

[pianowelsh]

Sofrontitsky ! - had Scriabins blessing - good enough for me!!

[thracozaag]

#1--Lazar Berman
#2--Sofronitsky's is a helluva lot more than "interesting", and there actually is a complete recording.
#3--Berman, Sofronitsky (Horowitz's is strangely disappointing).
#4--Gavrilov, Friere (live), Zhukov, Hamelin
#5--Horowitz, Richter, Sofronitsky
#6--Richter, Woodward, Kuerti
#7--Zhukov, Richter, Hamelin
#8--Sofronitsky, Hamelin
#9--Sofronitsky, Horowitz (both of them), Sokolov
#10--Sofronitsky, Horowitz

koji

[pabst]

I agree totally with what Koji came up with, I'd just like to add:

#2 - Feinberg
#3 - Gilels (studio)
#4 - Gilels (live), Fiorentino (live)
#5 - Cristina Ortiz (live)

#7 - Ian Fountain

[thracozaag]

 *hits forehead*

Forgot about the Feinberg, Gilels and Fiorentino, thanks.

koji

[odsum25]

I would suggest checking out the new Earl Wild recording of the 4th Sonata. While not the best, it is very good and presents some interesting ideas. Also, it was totally unexpected from Wild, who apparently has known Scriabin since his youth.

[superstition2]

Sofronitsky's is a helluva lot more than "interesting", and there actually is a complete recording.

That's nice to know. The Great Pianists notes said he never recorded the Presto and it's not included. The Andante played by Sofronitsky is quite interesting, but it doesn't seem as wonderful to me as Horowitz's 5th, 9th, 10th and Sofronitsky's 9th. Have you heard Glemser's 2nd? The Presto isn't amazing, but the Andante is very well-played.

#4--Hamelin

Why?

#7--Hamelin

Oh no. He slows the ending strangely. It totally ruins the piece, in my opinion. Have you heard Glemser's performance? It's not as electrified as Horowitz or as poetic as Sofronitsky, but it's very well-played.

#8--Hamelin

I can't see how Hamelin's performance is superior to Ashkenazy's.

Have you heard Robert Taub's Scriabin? His best performances are not flashy. For instance, his performances of the 5th and 10th are my favorites, aside from Horowitz's. Horowitz is truly amazing and exciting (although a bit harsh and coarse at times), but Taub's performances are subtle and appealling in a different way.

I have only the Sofronitsky "Great Pianists" disc, so I've not heard his 5th or 8th.

[thracozaag]

  Sofronitsky's 2nd sonata once again, is much more than "quite interesting", it (along with his 8th sonata rendition) is one of the greatest piano performances I've ever heard on record, period.
  I think the Hamelin performances I alluded to speak for themself--in terms of sheer pianism,  they are of the highest order, even if the interpretations are on the dull side.
  Speaking of dull, Ashkenazy's drab and uninspired set of sonatas was a real disappointment.  Glemser's 7th is excellent, I agree; not a fan of Taub's set.

koji

[quantum]

#1 Taub, Laredo

#3 Alma Petchersky (you really have to listen to this!)

#5 Laredo (conveys the idea in the sound), Horowitz (harsh in places, but amazing in others), Hamelin (flashy, pianistic, but kind of misses the idea of ecstasy, way too dry). 

#7 Laredo, Hamelin (would get my top vote if it wasn't for that awful coda, if you look closely though he does not bring out several characteristic Scriabin accents and motifs)


That's all for now

Unfortunately, haven't been able to track down Sofronitsky's recordings yet. 

[superstition2]

#5 Laredo (conveys the idea in the sound)[/url]
Hmm. I think it's her weakest performance of a Scriabin sonata, although her 8th is a sleeper and the 4th is frivolous in the second movement. I'll have to listen again, perhaps. Have you heard Hamelin's? It's closer to Horowitz's performance than the others, although strangely clumsy in a crucial place (a place Horowitz plays well). I prefer Taub's performance to Hamelin's, though.

[jpowell]

It would be hard to add to what has already been said. I'd agree by suggesting that Ashkenazy is rather dull (I was deeply underwhelmed, also, by his Rachmaninoff Preludes recently), but among my personal favourites are Zhukov's: there is also a 1970s? Melodiya LP with sonatas 6, 7, 8, and 10 I think which is mostly less slow than the more recent complete set. However, I don't generally have a problem with his fairly extreme tempos, especially in the later sonatas. Mikhailov's 8th is very good - I've heard him play it live, in Moscow about 5 years ago. I've only got his set recently and have just listened to it once. Feinberg also recorded no.2, which is stunning. There are also private tapes of a live recording of him playing no.5, and even though the quality is pretty bad, it does give a very good idea that he played it brilliantly. My favourite Sofronitsky ones are 2, 3, 9 and 10. Although the Ogdon is pretty uneven, I remember being impressed by aspects of his 7th (and I'd agree that Ian Fountain plays this one well, but there are some discrepancies with the printed text in his EMI disc). More good, and completely unedited, studio performances of the later sonatas can be heard from Yuri Paterson-Olenich, on his disc on the Prometheus label. I think that's about it for now!

[superstition2]

It would be hard to add to what has already been said. I'd agree by suggesting that Ashkenazy is rather dull (I was deeply underwhelmed, also, by his Rachmaninoff Preludes recently)

He did an outstanding job with the original version of the 2nd sonata. I agree that the preludes are lacking, though. Once again, Horowitz stands high above.

Ashkenazy's 8th is better than the others I've heard. Aside from that, the rest of the performances are not especially impressive. But, he did a good job with the 1st and played the quiet movement of the 3rd with quite a lot of beauty.

[mlsmithz]

He did an outstanding job with the original version of the 2nd sonata. I agree that the preludes are lacking, though. Once again, Horowitz stands high above.

Actually, strictly speaking Ashkenazy doesn't quite play the original version of the second sonata - he cuts and pastes from both versions.  The vast majority of his recording comes from the original version, but the last two bars of the first movement and various portions of the second and third movements are from the revised version (particularly noticeable in the coda to the second movement).  I'm guessing Ashkenazy blended together the passages which he felt were strongest in each version.  I do agree, though, that it's an excellent rendition.  I'm not sure what I think of his rendition of the preludes (truth be told, I bought that disc for the sonata anyway - the preludes were a bonus as far as I was concerned).

On Scriabin I have nothing to say, as I'm not well-versed in recordings of his sonatas (and I struggle a bit with his later work anyway, after he abandoned the then conventional laws of tonality).