Sonata No. 1 (Scriabin)
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Alexander Scriabin's Sonata No. 1 (opus 6) was completed in 1892. The key of the sonata is the dark key of F minor. The music is emotionally charged as much of the music was written after Scriabin had damaged his right hand through excessive piano playing. Balakirev's Islamey is reputed to have been the piece he was over-practising when he damaged his right hand. He was informed by physicians that he would never play again. The music was Scriabin's personal cry against God: the tragedy of the loss of a virtuoso pianist to whimsical fate, God's design. During this period of disability, he wrote the Prelude and Nocturne, op. 9 for left hand alone; however, in due course his right hand recovered.
The sonata is in four movements. The first movement, "Allegro con fuoco", starts with a very dark and passionate opening theme. This grows into a slightly more optimistic climax, but descends again into a forlorn close to the theme. It continues with a melancholy second theme in A-flat major which builds up to the very majestic ending of the 1st movement's exposition. There is a turbulent development section, followed by a recapitulation of the two main themes, in slightly varied form and with the modulations altered to bring the second theme back in F major. The movement ends very quietly, vacillating uncertainly between F minor and major, before settling for F major in the very last sustained chord.
The second movement, in C minor, is a very sad "Adagio" in ternary form, ending quietly in C major.
The third movement, "Presto", in F minor again, is in a rather condensed and compact Rondo form. The movement is harsh and agitated, relieved briefly only by the more tender middle theme in A-flat major, and angrily hammers into an unresolved end, which is resolved in the final slow movement, the "Funebre", again in F minor, and somewhat similar in mood to the funeral march of Chopin's second piano sonata. The gloom is unrelieved right up to the bleak ending in F minor, the last chord being bare octaves and 5ths in both hands, with only the notes F and C, without the 3rd degree of a triad, either major or minor.
[edit] Further reading
- Scriabin, Alexander. Complete Piano Sonatas. 1964 Muzyka score republished in 1988 by New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-25850-5.
