Sonatas № 2 end № 9 as Milestones in the Evolution of the Piano Style of A. Scriabin

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of two piano sonatas by A. Scriabin, representing in a complex the peculiarities of his piano style as an integral phenomenon. The two-part sonata No. 2, classified as a musical landscape, is considered in comparison with the performing versions proposed by S. Richter and V. Ashkenazy. The one-part Sonata No. 9, called “Black Mass”, is considered in comparison with the performing interpretations of V. Sofronitsky and V. Horowitz.
 It is noted that the Scriabin’s piano style is inherently mixed, compositional and performing, and its grandiose macrocycle of 10 sonatas appears as a compendium of the principles of piano thinking for the post-romantic era. The universalism of Scriabin’s writing is confirmed using the comparative method of analysis, for the first time proposed in this article in relation to the works under consideration.
 It was revealed that the style in music appears as “a system of stable features of musical phenomena, a way of their differentiation and integration at various levels” (S. Tyshko). The style is distinguished by a tendency to identify the individual, unique, “humanistic” in the broad sense of the word and has a hierarchical structure, within which there is a level characterized as “the style of any kind of music” (V. Kholopova), among which the piano style stands out.
 Scriabin’s piano sonatas combine the categories of “instrument style”, “author’s style” and “performer’s style” at the style level.
 It was revealed that the figurative and artistic duality of the Second sonata is reflected in the interpretations presented by S. Richter (the “classical” version, focused on the exact observance of the author’s text remarques, sounding in some places even like in Beethoven’s works), and V. Ashkenazy (the “romantic” version containing a whole complex of articulatory means added by the performer, most of all close to Chopin’s “sonic placers”).
 The main factor that determines the peculiarities of the performance of the Ninth sonata is the transfer of the playing of harmonic timbre-colors, in which the melodic horizontal turns out to be inert in itself and manifests itself only in harmonic lighting in combination with articulatory attributes. It is noted that A. Scriabin creates in the Ninth sonata actually a special type of texture, accentuating the parameter of depth, based on the stereophonic effect “further — closer”.
 In the conclusions on the article, it is noted that the stylistic “arch” of two Scriabin’s sonatas highlighted in it helps to comprehend the holistic character and contextual connections of the sonata-piano style of the great Russian composer-innovator, to find “keys” to actual interpretations of his other piano sonatas, an example of which is analyzed interpretation samples of such masters as V. Sofronitsky and V. Horowitz (Ninth sonata) and S. Richter and V. Ashkenazy (Second sonata).