After a lengthy gap(Yvgeny Sudbin's early Scriabin record was made in 2006) he returns to what is clearly a special love with even greater skill and poetic richness. By-passing negative early assessments of Scriabin's genius—one that prompted Stravinsky, no less, to ask, 'Scriabin, where does he come from?' he tells us in both his playing and writing of what he calls 'a supernova explosion to a galaxy' and the overwhelming ambition of a composer who wished 'to 'illuminate the universe' with his light.'
Today, we have moved far from early incomprehension phrased in sarcastic terms(regarding Scriabin,' there are those who think that the air is full of green monkeys with crimson eyes and sparkling tails, a kind of ecstasy that is sold in Russia for two Rubles a bottle.') or an over-refined estimate that saw Scriabin as ' a fastidious antidote to Rachmaninov's comfortable liberality.'
As on his previous disc Sudbin's selection is as wide-ranging as you could wish, turning from early Chopin influenced romanticism(though it could never be mistaken for Chopin) in, for example two of the opus 11 Preludes, the B minor Fantasie and the Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand, to the dark sun of the Tenth Sonata.
Opening audaciously with 'Vers la flamme' the move from menacing whisperings to elemental uproar could hardly be more potently realised. In the Fourth Sonata(together with the Fifth a transition work) Sudbin's meticulous clarity makes light of every ricocheting rhythm and textural intricacy, while in the Etude No 7 from opus 8(a distant relative of Chopin's A minor Etude, opus 25,No 4) or in the romantically storming and glowing No 3, you will be made aware of the cardinal quality of Sudbin's playing, of how he places a restraining hand on Scriabin's wildness while never losing an ounce of his poetry. Again, his enviable clarity and nuance give a special status to the Siberian whirlwind of the opus 42 Etude No 5 while in such sensitive hands the Tenth Sonata's necromancy becomes mesmeric, alive with the narcotic world once noted by Artur Rubinstein.
Ending with the Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand was an inspired move returning you to Scriabin at his most affecting and least controversial. From Sudbin music that outwardly suggests a limitation becomes comprehensive, singing and sighing with a romantic empathy that few could equal.
Beautifully recorded this issue is haunting and memorable in so many ways; an arguable counter, almost classic alternative to Horowitz's manically intense and volatile Scriabin.
Bryce Morrison