Scriabin Etudes; Preludes; Piano Sonata  Alexander Scriabin 12
Etudes, Op.8; Preludes, Opp. 13 & 16; piano Sonata No. 10, Op.
70, etc Olli Mustonen (piano) Catalogue Number: Scriabin Etudes;
Preludes; Piano Sonata   The Op. 8 Studies are a cornucopia of
Scriabin’s early influences, from Chopin (especially) to
Schumann and Brahms. They thrillingly expound the multilayered
pianistic intricacy that would characterise his entire piano
output. Whereas Gordon Fergus-Thompson (ASV) envelopes these
microcosms in a heat-haze of alluring colours, Olli Mustonen
(like Vladimir Ashkenazy and Roberto Szidon in their respective
Scriabin sonata surveys) is more emotionally direct. Mustonen
emphasises the music’s stylistic antecedents, rather than
looking forward to the expressive ambivalence of Scriabin’s
later music. You sense Chopin’s Etudes continually sparking
Scriabin’s creative thought processes in Mustonen’s masterly
traversal of the Etudes Op. 8, and the influence of Chopin’s
Preludes on Scriabin’s Preludes Opp. 13 a