Home
Piano Music
Piano Music Library
Audiovisual Study Tool
Search pieces
All composers
Top composers »
Bach
Beethoven
Brahms
Chopin
Debussy
Grieg
Haydn
Mendelssohn
Mozart
Liszt
Prokofiev
Rachmaninoff
Ravel
Schubert
Schumann
Scriabin
All composers »
All pieces
Recommended Pieces
PS Editions
Instructive Editions
Recordings
Recent additions
Free piano sheet music
News & Articles
PS Magazine
News flash
New albums
Livestreams
Article index
Piano Forum
Resources
Music dictionary
E-books
Manuscripts
Links
Mobile
About
About PS
Help & FAQ
Contact
Forum rules
Pricing
Log in
Sign up
Piano Forum
Home
Help
Search
Piano Forum
»
Piano Board
»
Performance
»
Should I play presto in Scriabin's Sonata No. 5?
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Down
Topic: Should I play presto in Scriabin's Sonata No. 5?
(Read 1805 times)
carcoleghoast
PS Silver Member
Newbie
Posts: 8
Should I play presto in Scriabin's Sonata No. 5?
on: January 30, 2023, 03:03:44 PM
I noticed that the most popular section in Scriabin Sonata No. 5 is Presto con allegraza, and I searched around on Youtube if anybody ever reached the speed. So far I have not.
I'm a very fast pianist, so I am able to reach presto with no problem. Would you guys recommend me to actually play that fast?
Logged
Scriabin: Sonata Op. 53
Sign up for a Piano Street membership to download this piano score.
Sign up for FREE! >>
quantum
PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 6271
Re: Should I play presto in Scriabin's Sonata No. 5?
Reply #1 on: January 30, 2023, 04:00:41 PM
Presto con allegrezza, and other similar such indications are relative tempo indications, they are not metronome markings. Comparing your own Presto con allegrezza speed to other pianists serves no useful purpose if your choice of Presto con allegrezza is not balanced with your own choice of speed within the many other contrasting tempo sections of the piece.
For example play the Languido too fast and the Presto too slow, and there is not enough differentiation to make Presto actually feel like presto. Play the bar 47 Presto con allegrezza too fast, and there might not be enough room to make Bar 329 Prestissimo faster, or the Prestissimo becomes too fast that it devolves into nonsensical tone clusters. Play Meno vivo too fast, and there is not enough contrast to actually make it sound different from the previous section.
The challenge is to create a sense of balance within your own interpretation, so said interpretation stands by itself and can be upheld by its own merits. There is a finite range of tempi that is both physically and musically viable, it is up to you to fit the entirety of your musical vision within that finite range. Don't just play fast because you can, a note not heard is not fast.
Logged
Made a Liszt. Need new Handel's for Soler panel & Alkan foil. Will Faure Stein on the way to pick up Mendels' sohn. Josquin get Wolfgangs Schu with Clara. Gone Chopin, I'll be Bach
danesi
PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 33
Re: Should I play presto in Scriabin's Sonata No. 5?
Reply #2 on: January 30, 2023, 05:49:53 PM
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
Logged
Play piano. It is groovy!
Bach-Busoni > Bach-Brahms
thorn
PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 795
Re: Should I play presto in Scriabin's Sonata No. 5?
Reply #3 on: February 08, 2023, 11:25:58 PM
This piece comes from Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy which if you strip away the spiritual grandiosity is just talking about sex. The climax, which he marks 'estatico', is not until b.433 so it needs to last for a while, and getting too excited at b.47 (the first Presto con allegrezza) is not a good idea.
My favourite version of this piece is Richter's, his Presto con allegrezza is plenty fast enough for me. Sofronitsky takes it at a similar tempo too.
Logged
anacrusis
PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 821
Re: Should I play presto in Scriabin's Sonata No. 5?
Reply #4 on: February 11, 2023, 09:54:51 PM
Richter's recordings of this are utterly fantastic.
Logged
Sign-up to post reply
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Up
For more information about this topic, click search below!
Search on Piano Street