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Thanks Mark. What a wonderful feeling it must be to have a review like that. Some day give us Beethoven's Opus 110.

I don't know yet what to think about the music... I absolutely love some earlier Scriabin pieces, but this is quite something else... your playing sounds impressive though! Do you also play early Scriabin?

Sure! I play early, middle, and late Scriabin. I'm an equal opportunity Scriabin player.

Most of my favorite Scriabin works are earlier. It took me a very long time to really appreciate his late style.

P.S. Glad you found your way to "Member Recordings"! (And I saw that you looked at some other posts on here also.)
As you know, that's a whole issue in itself, and I appreciated your post on that thread.

Mark :

I've listened to this twice, now, once with the score and once without, but apart from commenting on your apparent technical mastery of the work, I'm not familiar enough with late Scriabin to make any intelligent observations on your interpretation. It does seem to be a daunting work, and the technical challenges appear not to be the only challenges.

I don't quite understand the work; I don't understand what it is "saying," where it is going, nor what it means. Nor, yet, does it "speak" to me in a manner to which I could respond. I wonder how many listenings it might take to begin to feel that I was gleaning some of the essence of this Sonata.

Nevertheless, my hat goes off to you for what you have done with this work.

Regards,

Thanks very much Bruce, especially for even listening a second time.

My first reaction was "oh no, I failed" -- regarding your not knowing what it is saying, where it is going, nor what it means, and that it doesn't "speak" to you. And I think it probably means I sort of did, although I know that it took me many years before I "got" late Scriabin. BTW, need I say, you're far from alone; while most people who hear me play it in person seem to love it, quite a few feel puzzled or worse.

While I'm proud of this video and I feel it's the best recording I've ever made of anything, I know it could have been much better, I've come to cringe at those aspects. For example, while this might seem to be just a tiny thing, right in the first measure, the 4th chord is too loud, and I think it maybe destroys the message right away. For me it sort of does, but I try to convince myself that I'm being too picky. And there are a number of other things: a pause that was unintended and seems meaningless ("what was I thinking"), a section that should have been much softer, a place where the music is supposed to be running away furiously but I hold back just a little, probably out of cautiousness.....
I can't help wondering if maybe you (and others) would have liked it better "if only" I had executed a little better.

Maybe some day I'll play it well enough to find out.

This is not a case, I believe, of "the medium being the message." I think that I simply need more than two hearings to begin to feel anything about this piece, which is not a way of saying that you didn't do it justice or didn't adequately convey its meaning or "message."

Wallowing (with guiltless pleasure) as I do in listening to and in playing the Romantic and Classical literature, it would certainly take more than just an outstanding interpretation of this piece for it to "say" something to me. I am on totally unfamiliar ground here without any points of reference in my listening experience.

In my numerous and sometimes detailed critiques of the performances of others, I limit myself to commenting on works that I know well or on the composers whose works I am familiar with. While I try to find something constructive to say in my critiques that can only be done based on knowledge of a work or familiarity with a style of writing.

I still don't think it's a case, at all, of your not succeeding in your performance of this work. I need a frame of reference in which to place a performance before I feel I can make any comment on it, and I have none for this work.

Speaking of Scriabin, however, I am currently working on the Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand alone, Op. 9, my very first attempt at playing anything by this composer. But for the awkwardness of the cadenza in the Nocturne and my current inability to master that cadenza to my satisfaction, I would post a recording of it. That may yet come.

Again, I am impressed by what I see and hear as far as your technical grasp of this Sonata is concerned. I understand your 'cringe-moments'; we all have them in performances both live and recorded. Those that you mentioned I was unaware of and they certainly wouldn't be the focus - I don't think - of any critique I might make.

I just need to educate myself further.

Regards,

Thanks for all that -- and I'd love to see you do the nocturne and/or etude for L.H. alone. They're truly great pieces -- and of course part of the greatness is that if you don't know the piece and aren't 'looking,' you'd probably never know it's just one hand playing.

About the 9th Sonata.....not that you (or anyone) has to go and listen yet again but if you want to see whether "the performance" was the issue, you might want to check out this recording by Horowitz. If you listen to that and still don't much get it, then I really won't feel too inadequate.

Hi Mark,

I love the recording. I'm also not familiar with late Scriabin, though I have recently been playing through the preludes and etudes for fun (and making a "to-do" list ). What a pleasure to hear this Sonata.

You play with such clarity and maturity. I would imagine you've been playing this piece for years. Thanks for expanding our musical horizons. I do believe that our ears need several hearings to truly appreciate unfamiliar music.

I hope you are working on an entry for the next Amateur's Competition.

You're a great addition here at PW. Your talent, knowledge, and enthusiasm are a joy. After 2000 posts, is it too late to say "welcome"?

Thanks very much, Heidiv! I appreciate that a lot. I've been playing the piece for 2 years -- don't know if that would be considered long. I am indeed working on an entry to next year's Cliburn competition -- very hard -- and my main goal is just to be admitted. I've always made it in the past, but it's never sure and at least once I just squeaked in. The standard for it is much higher than many people seem to realize.

Thanks for even just listening, and I'm thrilled that you liked it so much.

Hi Mark,
Good luck on preparing for the Cliburn. Did you work on the piece continuously for the 2 years or take breaks? I tend to get sick of pieces after working on them for a few months and usually abandon them after they're polished, then revive them if I need to. It's amazing how many of you can practice certain pieces so much and still manage to love them. I guess I haven't reached that musical maturity yet.

I actually learned it in about 4 months and then started performing it, and people thought it was very good at that time, including my teachers. But it was only when I started preparing this video that I realized how much work it still needed! (And still did even after the "finished" product.)


Me too. And also, if I can't play something pretty well by then, it means either I never will or at least I need to take a break (probably a pretty long one) and then approach it somehow very differently. (I know that this wouldn't necessarily apply to most people.)

Whether or not it applies to most people, I think that it's most frequently a good idea to drop a piece that you've worked to a reasonable performance level, let it "simmer on the artistic back burner" for a while and then return to it. I have found that I return not only mentally refreshed but often with quite different views about what the piece says and how I should interpret it. I like to think that this re-visiting provides better interpretations than previous ones.

Regards,

I'm probably the most simple-minded, person on this forum, with the least formal musical training, education..

But that music is 'strange' to me. It makes me think of a twisted, roller-coaster relationship between a woman and her obsessive, possessive lover. The music is the 'I'm sorrys' followed by the 'I love you so much' followed by the 'Where have you been?' followed by 'If I can't have you...'

And 'NO' I am not and never have been in that type of relationship! LOL Just watch and read too many crime/dramas!

Your playing is extrordinary. And you play so, seemingly, effortlessy! And really, how do you memorize that much? Amazing! You have sparked a curiosity for 'Scriabin.' I will listen to more and try to develope an understanding, if not a taste, for his music! And Good Luck! I hope you win!

Hey HappyApple, wonderful stuff isn't it - the biography below is really interesting if your curiosity grows. You would be in good company. I was watching an Ashkenazy interview a while ago in which he describes his "Scriabin addiction" phase. Scriabin's earlier works are far more 'conventional' - which is the wonderful thing about him - you can join him on an extraordinary journey of compositional development...

http://www.amazon.com/New-Scriabin-Enigma-Answers/dp/0312569807

Personally I can't get enough Scriabin - love it all - not sure why - it just seems - right...

Thanks! I will check it out. I listened last night and today to some more Scriabin. Such a contrast in his styles. I listened to one of his early recordings (from a roll?) It was said to have been very close to the true sound of his actual playing. And it was amazing. It's like a rolling storm, but controlled. It stated that 'velocity' was very important to him. And then I saw a young, blind girl do a song. She did an excellent job also. His music has it's own distinct sound. And I may learn to enjoy it.

Now back to the original poster, MarkCannonYou are such a humble and talented man. Your humbleness/talent ratio is too high! I just want to make it clear that although the music is 'foreign' to me, your playing is clearly out-of-this-world awesome!

And just realized that competition is over. Congratuations on an amazing effort. Did the winner receive anything? A new piano?

Hey, Happy Apple!!!!
Just saw this.....didn't know you did this post!
I just got done looking/listening to your video, and doing a comment on your channel and a post on your thread. And now I find this!!! What can I say, you made my day.


It is strange!


No wonder I like it.


I have no idea how I ever memorized this. But really, look at how most people memorize songs so easily -- I mean the usual kind of songs, not "song" like how people say it on YouTube and stuff for any piece of music. How do we understand that? I don't really. It's just that the music and the words "click" for us in some kind of way, more than if we were just trying to memorize the lyrics; it's something about what the music does to us. And I think memorizing piano music isn't much of a leap from there, in terms of how it happens. We're just adding "motor memory" or muscle memory. But, I must admit that when it comes to music like this, I'm at a total loss to understand it. But I don't really understand how it really happens even just with songs either!

Thanks so much for listening and commenting. Much appreciated! And I'm glad this gets you interested in Scriabin. He's a hoot.
BTW.......I can't tell for sure from your post if you listened to Horowitz's recording or mine! If it was Horowitz, no wonder it was good!

Absolutely right -- Scriabin went on quite a journey in his few years. His early music is "almost normal" .....quite a bit like Chopin and/or Brahms. Then pretty quick he starts carving out his own thing, and by the end it's like he's on another planet.

The author of that bio also wrote a long 2-volume bio a few years earlier. I'm not sure how this other one fits in -- maybe it's sort of a condensed version, or maybe it's a follow-up, addressing some issues that came about from the earlier work? I have the 2-volume thing......I'm tempted to get this one too, which I didn't know about. I'm glad you mentioned and linked to it.

The winner got something that might sound like nothing but which she might consider better than a new piano: automatic acceptance to the next Van Cliburn amateur competition (which is next year). And, would you believe, she also got a piano out of the deal! So the story goes, she was assuming she would "lose," so before the result came out, her husband got her a new piano as a "consolation prize."

Please don't feel too sorry for us "losers."
We got a lot out of it too, including more attention and recognition on our work than we could have ever gotten otherwise. I'm very grateful for having been able to participate.

Hi Mark,

From the cover of the book I have - "All the material in book is new, incorporating recently released documents from the Soviet Union never before available in English..."

Sounds promising (the fact that it can't literally all be not notwithstanding :)).

Yes it does -- I've bookmarked the Amazon page and I'll be looking for a good copy of it.
Thank you!!!

BTW......you may be interested in this old review of the book:
Review
It's quite critical but doesn't take away from the importance of the book. And it seems clear that the reviewer has his own axes that he's grinding.....