Scriabin: Symphony No. 4, Op. 54 Poème de l'Extase & Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29 Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra & JoAnn Falletta

• Alexander Scriabin (1872 - 1915): Symphony No. 4, Op. 54 "Poème de l'Extase":
• 1 Scriabin: Symphony No. 4, Op. 54 "Poème de l'Extase" 19:15
• Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29:
• 2 Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29: I. Andante - 06:29
• 3 Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29: II. Allegro 09:13
• 4 Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29: III. Andante 10:47
• 5 Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29: IV. Tempestoso - 05:55
• 6 Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29: V. Maestoso 07:45
• Total Runtime 59:24

Info for Scriabin: Symphony No. 4, Op. 54 Poème de l'Extase & Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29

Scriabin composed most of his single-movement fourth symphony The Poem of Ecstasy between 1905 and 1908 in Italy and France. He originally intended it to be called Poème orgiaque (‘Orgiastic Poem’) with its unprecedented raw sensuality and overpowering aesthetic, taking chromaticism beyond even Wagnerian voluptuousness. His earlier Symphony No. 2 in C minor adopts César Franck’s cyclical ideas to which Scriabin layered sweeping climaxes, majestic intensity and rich orchestral colour that enliven its five movements with ceaseless invention.

Alexander Scriabin is one of those fascinating historical figures whose unorthodox beliefs about music and life continue to generate controversy. He was given to making brazenly outrageous pronouncements, and once described the music of Igor Stravinsky as ‘a mass of insolence and a minimum of creative power.’ Half a century later he himself was taken down a peg or two by Wilfrid Mellers, who memorably wrote that ‘Scriabin whipping himself into ecstasy is not so different from that other cosmopolitan Russian, Tchaikovsky, whipping himself into fury or despair: except that Scriabin’s melodic vitality is so much lower.’ The use of the word ‘vitality’ is interesting because Scriabin always attached great psychological importance to the idea of artistic and physical potency. According to the musicologist Leonid Sabaneyev (a former colleague of the composer) Scriabin inextricably linked the creative act with the sexual and maintained that maximum creative power is inseparable from maximum eroticism. He even claimed that it was a decrease in sexual vitality in the ageing Wagner that accounts for the stylistic differences between Tristan and Parsifal.

At an age when he would still have considered his own vitality to be wholly undiminished, Scriabin succumbed to fatal septicaemia caused by an abscess on his lip. He was only 43. His unrealised projects included his magnum opus: an ambitious sacred theatre piece called Mysterium, which was envisaged as ‘the act of union between the Male-Creator and the Woman-World’. It was intended to be a transformative event for all humanity, and members of the audience were to indulge in passionate behaviour if they felt so moved. Scriabin aimed to produce it over the course of seven days and seven nights in the Himalayas, and he even went so far as to acquire a plot of land in Darjeeling for this purpose.

The Poem of Ecstasy may be somewhat tamer than Mysterium, but as Martin Cooper has observed, there is still ‘plenty of internal evidence to suggest erotic connotations.’ Indeed, there is no escaping the unmistakable nature of erotic fantasy implied by such musical directions as ‘avec une volupté de plus en plus extatique’ which, if fully observed, propel the piece almost literally towards an ineffable release of delayed gratification redolent of the yearning of Tristan and Isolde. ...

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
JoAnn Falletta, conductor

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
was founded in 1935 and makes its home in Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark with an international reputation as one of the greatest concert halls in the United States. Through the decades the orchestra has grown in stature under a number of distinguished conductors including William Steinberg, Josef Krips, Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, Semyon Bychkov, and Maximiano Valdés. As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the BPO has performed across the United States, Canada and Europe, including concerts at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Hall and 22 appearances in Carnegie Hall. The orchestra’s European tour included two sold-out performances in Vienna’s Musikverein, and concerts in Milan, Geneva, Zurich and Frankfurt, among other venues. The BPO performs 120 concerts annually and is heard by millions on radio broadcasts across the United States and beyond on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

JoAnn Falletta
serves as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Virginia Symphony in the United States and Principal Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland. She has guest conducted over a hundred orchestras in North America, and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa and is the Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center of North Carolina. Recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, winner of the Stokowski Competition, and the Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter conducting awards, Falletta has also received eleven ASCAP awards and serves on the U.S. National Council on the Arts. A champion of American music, she has presented nearly five hundred works by American composers including over one hundred world premières. Her Naxos recordings include the double GRAMMY® Award winning disc of works by John Corigliano and GRAMMY® nominated discs of works of Tyberg, Dohnányi, Fuchs, Schubert, and Respighi.

Booklet for Scriabin: Symphony No. 4, Op. 54 Poème de l'Extase & Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 29