Sokolov plays Scriabin "Vers la flamme" live

[GerryRains1946]

truecrypt was kind enough to upload this piece by Sofronitsky. Granted the 1946 mono recording isn't on a par with the recordings of today, but Sofronitsky's performance is definitely superior to this one.

Point: The late Ms. Scriabin who, of course, never heard Sokolov, stated that Sofronitsky was the greatest interpreter of her husband's music and the competition included Horowitz and Richter.

No flames please, just well thought out opinions.

[GerryRains1946]

Great as Sokolov is, and I think that he is marvelous, I still place Marc-Andre Hamelin first. On the other hand I have heard Hamelin live and not Sokolov. YT certainly doesn't compare to live. People (including me) were crying when Hamelin played in this area (DC) seven months ago. Maybe I cry too easily.

[davidgray2]

I imagine this has been slowed down-it's pretty slow in general and it's a semitone flat! Very interesting, nonethelesss.

[ukdavepianoman]

This is a semitone flat but that is obviously the recording and not Sokolov.

This piece is not atonal. The fact that the tonality shifts rapidly in places doesn't make it atonal.

Sokolov is the only pianist i have heard who plays the trills as Scriabin wrote them i.e. with the ties. I'm not saying this makes it better or worse, it's just an observation that what Sokolov does is technically far more diifficult to get right.

Richter does what most other pianists do and omits the ties.

[MrRrrrvvvv]

this doesn't do it for me at all, Horowitz all the way

[darkblueangel1956]

@pattoculto12 Si, giusto. Vladimir Sofronitsky !

[darkblueangel1956]

Completamente lontano dalle alchimie sonore e timbriche di Horowitz, Sofronosky, Igor Zhukov e Askenazy !!! Non approvo !!!!

[ClaudioEspejo1992]

This is in the wrong pitch or Horowitz is

[retrogamerdave]

@ClaudioEspejo1992 obviously the recording was made on some primitive equpiment and it screwed up the pitch

it happens all the time with old equipment that uses a motor that isn't set to the right speed

[4hm3dimr4n]

really you think he follows the music?? it sounds like it's in a different key (and i know this is atonal but you know what i mean)

the beginning was a bit too slow...this piece shouldn't be so slow that it's boring

i really dislike how he played the trill section

it doesn't feel like a climax section and his trills don't have the feel of a mad flame

[ukdavepianoman]

It's a very different performance from Horowitz. This is one of the few performances, maybe the only one on Youtube, where the pianist plays exactly what Scriabin wrote in regards the trills i.e. observing the tied notes, which incidentally is FAR more difficult than just playing normal trills. Presumably Scriabin had a reason for including the ties, and bravo to Sokolov for observing them. It does create a different character to the music - almost as though the flames were flickering.

[droitecaviar]

@ukdavepianoman What about Richter's version?

[apollonianclockwork]

it's better than horowitz's version. though horowitz' rendering is partly magical, it lacks (so typical for him) organization.

[kempff95]

@liszt80 if you say such things you are completely dont understand music.

i am sorry.

[kempff95]

horowitz play it better!

[MISHA1119]

@kempff95 No he doesn't, Kempff! Sokolov's Vers la Flamme is as good as Horowitz's in its own way. Both capture the smoldering perfume that gradually builds into the molten lava of a volcano erupting as well as

any pianists who have ever lived. Sokolov's performance actually has more rhymthic tension and galvanic

forward propulsion than Horowitz's, though not quite as much subtlety and color, but they are surely equal.