Scriabin 2 Preludes Op. 27

[lowk-_-y]

Here's my playing of Scriabin's 2 Preludes, Op.27. Quite a contrast in mood but equal in beauty.

Feel free to share your thoughts.




Also, the weird hesitation at end of the second prelude is due to the note refusing to sound at first

[medtnerfan]

Thanks for sharing, I love these 2 preludes.

This is for the first one, I'll write up feedback for the 2nd one later.
I listened to Sofronitsky's recording as well and it seems like he's interpreting the portamentos in the first 6 measures as instructions for rubato; basically he's delaying them and then playing them faster. I recommend checking that out for inspiration for rubato.

For the end of the phrase at measure 8, right before the piano dynamic, you don't play the F and D in the right hand at the same time. I'm not sure if this was intentional or a misreading. In the score I'm looking at the D is positioned slightly to the right, but it's meant to be on the third beat (7th eighth note pulse)

For measures 9-12, where have piano, try to experiment with using the una corda pedal there but without playing too soft (in other words voice the top by quite a bit, as well as the counter melody), then for 13 onwards, release the una corda but start the cresc softer. This is just a suggestion to try out.

For the fortissimo section, I think it should be stronger (specifically the F in the second beat), this could be because of the piano you're working with or the recording equipment. Here are some tips that might help, first the chord (right hand) can be awkward to play, making it harder to control the dynamics, but you can take the first G in the mid voice with the thumb for more control. To be clear, I'm talking about the second measure from the "allarg", second beat (4th eighth note pulse), where the left is playing Bb-D-G-Bb and the right hand is playing F-G-Bb-F. Another thing, take that chord on it's own and try to achieve different dynamic levels while still maintaining good tone quality.

For the forte section at the end, before the mesto, you take a slower tempo (the same as the mesto section). I personally think you should keep a little bit of the energy that preceded this section, maybe use rubato (accelerating a little bit in the middle of the section maybe). The reason for this is that you don't want to take away from the mesto section.

For the mesto section, I would play the eighth notes almost straight. I think that would give a sense of "giving up", like in the previous sections there was an impassioned yearning for something, but now maybe you're considering giving up. Also, experimenting with una corda here wouldn't be a bad idea I don't think.

Last thing is phrasing, especially in the end, some notes seem to get unintentionally accented (only a slight accent, but it still disrupts the phrase). Try practicing those sections all pianissimo as an exercise for more control over the phrasing. I sent you this video before, but I'll link it again, I always practice this to achieve more control when I'm not happy with my phrasing because of lack of control. Link here:

[lowk-_-y]

Thank you for your feedback, insightful as always.

Yes, I do love sofronitsky, my go-to for scriabin. He has such a stylised sense of rubato, I doubt I could even try to imitate it while keeping the sense of direction that I intended. Although, now in hindsight, do you think my tempo is a bit fast for the patetico marking. I've heard some unbelievably slow recordings of this.

The B8 misplacement was just a misread on my part, thanks for pointing that out.

For the fortissimo section, I think overall you're right, it is quite difficult to give this huge passionate feeling while having a quality, controlled sound. I think this section sounds a bit harsh and the melodic line was a little obscured by the repeated chords.

Good point about the tempo before the mesto, slowing down here definitely takes away from the impact of the mesto but I'm not sure how I'd justify maintaining the energy here. I was picturing that after the huge climax in the middle, anything after  should be more of a resignation. Perhaps there would be another way to get this feel other than slowing down.

I like your idea about the mesto section with straight quavers without rubato.

You're also right about the phrasing, a lot for me to work on.

It wouldn't be a response from you without a Josh Wright video  but yes I think his ideas would be useful here.


Thank you for your thoughts.