Gould plays Scriabin Sonata no. 5. op. 53. Part 2/2.

Glenn Gould (1970). Part 2/2. I uploaded this performance because I believe it's one of the greatest performances of the work (and the sound quality of the existing version one on Youtube just wasn't good enough to do Gould's wonderful shading / colouristic details justice).

From Wikipedia:
'The fifth piano sonata, Op. 53, written by Alexander Scriabin in 1907, marks the end of his Romantic period and the beginning of his atonal period. The piece consists of five themes, which intertwine and evolve throughout the piece: the intense, dissonant trill and glissando in the opening; a slow, languishing introductory theme; a dance-like presto based on material from the languishing theme and serving as the first subject group; a transition marked imperioso; and a meno vivo that serves as the second subject group (see sonata form).

Scriabin included an epigraph to this sonata, taken from his long poetic work The Poem of Ecstasy (not to be confused with his Symphony No. 4 "Poem of Ecstasy", Op. 54.) The epigraph reads, "I summon you to life, hidden longings! You, drowned in the dark depths of the creative spirit, you fearful embryos of life, I bring you daring!"

This is Scriabin's most recorded sonata. The legendary pianist Sviatoslav Richter has described it as the most difficult piece in the entire piano repertory (along with Liszt's first Mephisto Waltz)[1]. A typical performance lasts about 11-12 minutes.

Notable recordings include those by Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Samuil Feinberg, Glenn Gould, Marc-André Hamelin and Igor Zhukov.'

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Glenn
• Gould
• Scriabin
• Sonata
• opus
• 53
• romantic
• atonal
• genius
• alexander
• nikolayevich
• scriabin
• rachmaninoff
• horowitz
• sofronitsky
• feinberg

[New4785689]

hay michel, you can post 15 mins videos now!

[micheldvorsky]

@New4785689 thanks for letting me know.

[trigalg693]

@zhangensprachen You think? I don't think it's necessarily lost when you play fast, just that it feels "right" to stretch in so many places so people just do :O

[Sword1479]

No matter who the preformer, my favorite part in any piece of music is at 0:30

[HenryFranconia]

Thanks for posting this. So interesting to hear Gould's very different approach to this sonata.

[StefanAnderson]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS­SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!

[zhangensprachen]

Rarely do we hear such precise rhythm in a performance of this piece. Unfortunately, losing this precision is what happens when you play it at the proper tempo ... @______@

[harpsichordRB]

Excellent .

Thank you for uploading.