Stanchinsky - Piano Sonata No. 2 in G major- I "Fuga"

First "Fuga" movement from the Piano Sonata No. 2 in G major (1912)

Hailed as a genius by Alexandrov, Medtner, Prokofiev, and Lourié, Alexei Stanchinsky (1888-1914) was once a household name to Russian composers in the early 20th-century only to be forgotten after the 1917 revolution. Today he is usually regarded as an eccentric composer whose premature death is shrouded in mystery. Throughout his youth, Stanchinsky was prone to mental illness, spent a year (1908-09) in an institution, and was pronounced "incurably insane." He often destroyed his own compositions in fits of hallucination and rage; thankfully, friends and colleagues did much to reconstruct many of his manuscripts. Despite his degrading mental health, Stanchinsky had ambitions in music and concertized widely. Yet in 1914 Stanchinsky's body was discovered near a creek and although the cause of death was unknown, rumors spread that it was suicide. During his studies at the Moscow Conservatory around 1909, Stanchinsky wrote experimental piano pieces that were considered avant-garde for the day. He assimilated elements of Scriabin, Medtner, Mussorgsky, and folk music in the creation of his own style, one that cradles the harmonic language of high Romanticism, especially Scriabin, and his own fascination with polyphonic textures. Interestingly, scholar Larry Sitsky calls Stanchinsky the "Diatonic Webern" for his propensity for diatonic saturation and employment of "polyphony not as a contrasting episode but rather as the essential and organic tool of his music."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• stanchinsky
• medtner
• alexandrov
• rachmaninov
• scriabin
• feinberg
• roslavets

[guja101010]

prokofiev discredited stanchinski, by calling his sketches nothing more than 'sketches'. i find all of stanchinski's work, the little there is due to his early suicide, significantly better and more profound than any of prokofiev's...

[Hexameron]

Agreed

[FlyingBlackAndWhite]

so beautiful!!

[Memoreism]

i thought it was sounding a bit weird and abstract but ended very gloriously =)

[BrackenClelk]

Scriabin also had distaste for Rachmaninov (boiled ham anyone?). Tolstoy also wasn't a fan of Rach (as are many critics and classical-listeners).

I wouldn't say Stanchinsky is more profound than Prokofiev, the Sixth Sonata, for example, more than contends this work. Prokofiev was a melodic composer. Superficially he may seem less profound (much like Tchaikovsky), but there is no question of his depth, or for that matter - profundity.

[martimtavares]

@guja101010 how good do you know prokofiev's work??

[tommyciszak]

Absolutely gorgeous.

[Tecallion]

@guja101010 Umm, everything I've ever read on Stanchinsky makes special note of mentioning that Prokofiev admitted to being influenced by him and enjoyed his music. In most cases, he is 1st on the list of notable people influenced by his music. Your opinion just seems irrelevant. Stanchinski is a fabulous composer, which would also make Prokofiev's unlikely statement, that you mentioned, also irrelevant against his overall artistic contributions.

[klapsikopatiko]

Anyone know who the pianist is?

[OniyukiRyuken]

@mslavicek Yep, Scriabin, Medtner and Rachmaninoff all had utter distaste for the tone-deaf bald man :D