Roslavets - Piano Sonata No. 1 (Part 1/2)

Part one of the First Piano Sonata (1914).

Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944) is sometimes called the "Russian Schoenberg" and was certainly the first Russian composer to use a system of tone organization similar to Schoenberg's serialism. Before the 1917 revolution, Roslavets was regarded as a cutting-edge composer comparable to Scriabin. Interestingly, Marc-Andre Hamelin describes Roslavets's music as "Scriabin on acid." After the revolution and the formation of the RAPM (Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians), Roslavets was criticized and harrassed for his modernism. In the late 1920s, he left the Communist Party and in 1931 moved to Tashkent. There he conducted for a music theater and composed simple pieces in accordance with Socialist Realism. He died in obscurity and his name and music was mostly forgotten until the 1970s.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• roslavets
• scriabin
• mosolov
• shostakovich
• prokofiev
• avant
• garde

[egyptianghetto56]

it sounds like Scriabin on acid.

[Kalen1457]

I hear some Scriabin piano sonata no.8 here

[MJE112358132134]

Muslit - nothing wrong with sequences (which Scriabin uses a lot, too). Try checking out various Beethoven sonatas, symphonies, almost anything by any great composer - full of them. A powerful and time-honoured technique of musical development.

[MJE112358132134]

Are any of these piano sonatas by Roslavets still in print? I do have a book of his shorter pieces, but that's all I have, and all I know about. I'd like to try the sonatas out on the piano. I don't know if it would be possible to somehow print the scores shown in the videos, but I'd really rather buy a proper copy to play from. If anyone can point me to sources for scores, I'd be grateful. Thanks. I really find some of this then-futuristic Russian music quite fascinating.

[nostromissimo]

The texture (Trills and Arabesques), rhythms and melodic angularities are all Scriabin. It's just the harmony that is different. It even looks like Scriabin on the sheet. Would anyone call this original? Not that it matters too much, I quite like it, but then, I'm always on the lookout for more Scriabin.

[pianomanhere]

Truly enjoy this piece...

@ Kalen1457: I do believe you are right.. very late-Scriabinesque

@ Egyptianghetto56: You crack me up.. lol.. then again Scriabin himself was a dabbler in Theosophy and the occult, so perhaps you're not too far from the truth.. lol

@Hexameron: MANY thanks for uploading this.

[muslit]

an awful lot of sequences

[Sveccha93]

@hohohee1 To a dog, Shakespeare says "woof"

[MJE112358132134]

Gosh - absolutely incredible stuff! Makes you wonder what Roslavets had been smoking when he came up with this.

Fascinating to follow the score while the music goes. I'd love to explore some more Roslavets, who seems the natural successor to the wonderful Scriabin.

With his thickets of double-flats and -sharps (and the odd triple-flat or - sharp), it must be monstrous to play. Like music from another planet, really.

So glad this composer's music isn't lost after all.

[gonrolgonrol]

Very very nice! :)

[hohohee1]

i heard shit 

[xodn3300]

Roslavets and Hamelin!! amazing