Should I play presto in Scriabin's Sonata No. 5?

[carcoleghoast]

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?

[quantum]

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. 

[danesi]

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

[thorn]

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.

[anacrusis]

Richter's recordings of this are utterly fantastic.