Piano Forum

Scriabin’s Sonatas are never easy to play right. There are so many nuances (late Romantic style of playing, arguably one of the precursors to Impressionism) that every piece is up to interpretation. I remember playing Scriabin’s Prelude and Nocturne for the Left Hand in concert a couple months ago, and I still recall the 5 hour session I spent staring at the sheet music in a vain attempt to create a story or theme for those pieces, easy as they may be. Scriabin’s Presto marking may say presto, but there can always be a second interpretation fit into the presto. Presto agitato? Presto con brio? Presto cantabile? It is completely up to you, and how you think your audience will accept your edition of a difficult Sonata. The fourth movement of Beethoven’s First Piano Sonata has a violent change from a powerful prestissimo to a prestissimo cantabile, which works wonders. This goes as an example that any style of playing can be beautiful. If you want to play the Presto in Scriabin’s sonata, go for it. Maybe play a bit slower and sustained in poignant parts, and fast and furious in more intense sections, because Scriabin’s pieces often switch between the two. In the end, I would suggest that rather than playing according to the metronome and rigid beat, discover your own phrasing that makes YOU feel good, because that’s what music is really all about: expressing yourself in more than words.

        Good luck with Scriabin,
                                        Danesi