Scriabin = "A darker Chopin"

[presto agitato]

Do you agree?  If not, How would you describe the style and characteristic of his piano works.

BTW I really like his music

[Awakening]

I'd say Scriabin's style is closer to Rachmaninoff's.  This would make sense because Scriabin was a friend and student of Rachmaninoff's, and learned a great deal from him.

[steinwayguy]

Yeah, I'd say he could be considered a darker Chopin. I also really like (some of) his piano works.

[Nightscape]

I think that is a good description of his early works.  But I would say from about op. 32 onwards, his style is so different from other composers that it is hard to compare his writing with that of Chopin or Rachmaninoff.  Not just the unusual harmonies, but his rhythmical writing and also his pianistic figurations become very original and unique.  For example, the "backwards" left hand arpeggios become prominent in his pieces (especially in the Black Mass sonata).  This figure is a huge contrast to the l.h. arpeggio figures typically found in Chopin and Rachmaninoff (the ones that start low, ascend, form an arc, then descend).  The Scriabin figure is more of a dash shape
( \ ).  It certainly gives the music a much different sound, not mention being a lot more difficult for the pianist to execute.

[rafant]

Scriabin was a friend and student of Rachmaninoff's,

Weren't they both co-disciples under Zverev?

[pianowelsh]

Ooh? Yes i think theres an element of truth in that especially with the early works there are so many unbelieveable paralells you could almost mistake very late Chopin (preludes and polonaise fantasy etc) for Scriabin - They both loved Bach and Mozart and both had very trad training (the training in Russia at time of Scriabin was extremely thorough and majored on the german cannon). Scriabins early piano stuff is nearly all miniature and he used a lot of same forms as Chopin but as he progressed he became more infatuated with Beethoven hence all the sonatas. He also got seriously into mysticism and I think this had an effect on his 'darkening' although it prob wasnt the only reason. He did train with Rach who was exploring these really lush harmonies too... and a characteristic of his mid and late period is this 'dislocated bass' which really enriches the harmony and give the music this floating quality - this is where he differs from Rach (where Rach always grounded in his playing  - Scriabin - floated - partly through touch and partly though skillfull use of ped NB Rach recordings of scriabin are not as good as sofrontitsky - who married his daughter). By sonata 5/6 we have almost completely lost the link to Chopin its much more modern and laconic... by sonatas 9/10 he is sounding more like prokofiev and bartok (prokofiev actually had dealings with him - ? the measure of influence - hard to tell). So broadly yes its true but more so in regard to his early stuff.