still tastes like peaches
There is no honor in politics, no recourse in civics, no dignity in ethics, but there is peace in reflection on the self.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Sviatoslav Richter playing Scriabin: Sonata no. 5 in F sharp major, Op 53
September 24, 1972 (Live in Prague)
‘The fifth piano sonata, Op. 53, written by Alexander Scriabin in 1907, marks the end of his Romantic period and the beginning of his atonal period. The piece consists of five themes, which intertwine and evolve throughout the piece: the intense, dissonant trill and glissando in the opening; a slow, languishing introductory theme; a dance-like presto based on material from the languishing theme and serving as the first subject group; a transition marked imperioso; and a meno vivo that serves as the second subject group.
Scriabin included an epigraph to this sonata, taken from his long poetic work The Poem of Ecstasy (not to be confused with his Symphony No. 4 “Poem of Ecstasy”, Op. 54.) The epigraph reads,
“I summon you to life, hidden longings!
You, drowned in the dark depths
of the creative spirit, you fearful
embryos of life, I bring you daring!”
This is Scriabin’s most recorded sonata. The legendary pianist Sviatoslav Richter has described it as the most difficult piece in the entire piano repertory (along with Liszt’s first Mephisto Waltz).
