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Scriabin: Final Mystery/Lubimov

Victor Carr Jr

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

Around 1903 Scriabin first conceived the idea of Mysterium, a seven day and seven night spritual/artistic experience incorporating music, poetry, visual effects, dancing, and chanting. Preparation for the Final Mystery was meant to usher his audience into the cosmic awareness necessary for Mysterium. Scriabin worked on Preparation mainly during 1912-13. He died in 1915, leaving 53 pages of sketches. Based on his intimacy with Scriabin’s style, and using Scriabin’s 1,000-line text as a guide, composer Alexander Nemtin (1936-1999) embarked on a realization of the work. The result is a massive three-part composition (1.Universe 2.Mankind 3.Transfiguration) for orchestra, wordless chorus and soloists, organ, piano obbligato, and even a “light keyboard”. The project occupied Nemtin for more than 26 years, ironically becoming his life’s work.

Of course, the main question is, “Does it sound like Scriabin”? Well, yes and no. The tone cluster that opens Universe (part one) resembles Tippett, but this soon resolves to the chord (based on fourths and augmented intervals) familiar from Prometheus and the late sonatas. (Reminiscences of Prometheus and the Poem of Ecstasy are ubiquitous.) Nemtin is a late 20th century composer and aspects of his own personality do appear despite his desire to act merely as a musical “medium”. (The grand conclusion to the work sounds more like Schnittke than anyone else.)

It’s questionable whether Scriabin would have actually completed such an expansive work, given that the late piano sonatas and orchestral works demonstrate an increasing concentration of thematic material into shorter forms. Consequently, much of “Preparation” sounds like filler. In many passages harmonic sequences and motifs are repeated seemingly endlessly, then interrupted by impressive orchestral flourishes, but not always soon enough to prevent ear fatigue. On the other hand, Ashkenazy and his assembled forces perform this music as if they believe in every bar. For those enthralled by Scriabin’s cosmology, Preparation will be an ecstatic, mystical experience. Devotees of Scriabin’s late harmonic style will find much to fascinate. Others may find themselves driven batty by more than two and one half hours of endless unresolved cadences.

Nemtin’s 1975 Nuances is a ballet based on orchestrations of Scriabin’s late piano miniatures. The beguiling melodies, delicate orchestration, and brevity of these pieces feel like a light dessert after a very heavy meal (except that the ballet comes first on the discs, so maybe it’s an appetizer). The recorded sound throughout is very detailed and atmospheric, with a wide dynamic range. Whatever one’s reservations about the success of Nemtin’s reconstruction, it would be hard to disagree that the performance itself is exemplary. [2/6/2000]


Recording Details:

Reference Recording: This one

ALEXANDER SCRIABIN - Preparation for the Final Mystery (realised by Alexander Nemtin); Nuances (orch. Nemtin)

  • Record Label: Decca - 466 329-2
  • Medium: CD

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