Presto Recording of the Week
9th May 2025

Record Review
10th May 2025
Record of the Week

Gramophone Magazine
June 2025
Editor's Choice

Jevgeni Sudbin (piano)

Scriabin: Vers la flamme, Op. 72
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 30: I. Andante
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 30: II. Prestissimo volando
Scriabin: 24 Preludes, Op. 11: No. 2 in A Minor. Allegretto
Scriabin: 24 Preludes, Op. 11: No. 11 in B Minor. Allegro assai
Scriabin: Fantasy in B minor, Op. 28
Scriabin: 12 Études, Op. 8: No. 4 in B Major. Piacevole
Scriabin: 12 Études, Op. 8: No. 7 in B-Flat Minor. Presto tenebroso, agitato
Scriabin: 12 Etudes in B Flat Minor, Op. 8
12 Études, Op. 8: No. 11 in B-Flat Minor. Andante cantabile
Scriabin: 12 Etudes in B Minor, Op. 8
12 Études, Op. 8: No. 3 in B Minor. Tempestoso
Scriabin: Preludes, Op. 16
Scriabin: 9 Mazurkas, Op. 25: No. 3 in E Minor. Lento
Scriabin: 2 Poèmes, Op. 32: No. 1 in F-Sharp Major. Andante cantabile
Scriabin: 8 Études, Op. 42: No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor. Affannato
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70
Scriabin: Prelude and Nocturne for the Left Hand, Op. 9: I. Prelude. Andante
Scriabin: Prelude and Nocturne for the Left Hand, Op. 9: II. Nocturne. Andante

Nineteen years after his first recital devoted to the music of Alexander Scriabin [BIS1568], Yevgeny Sudbin returns to the works of this eccentric Russian composer with a new recital that brings together pieces composed at various points in his career.

Of his special relationship with this composer, Sudbin writes: ‘I simply cannot think of any other composer who consistently brings out such a primordially raw and physical reaction in me and, with time, his grip has only intensified on me.’ Arthur Rubinstein once said that ‘Scriabin’s music is like a narcotic. It is so intoxicating that it can become dangerous’, to which Sudbin adds by way of precaution, ‘enjoy responsibly at your own peril.’

Carefully prepared by Sudbin, the programme reveals Scriabin’s stylistic evolution, from his beginnings when he was still influenced by Chopin and devoted to small forms, through his middle period where the rich, late-romantic idiom is just beginning to cross into darker, more complex realms, on to his late period in which, in Sudbin’s words, ‘one sometimes feels too close to the edge of insanity’. In his latter works, Scriabin indeed seems to push music to the expressive limits in order to create a climate of spiritual ecstasy.

"One thing that stands out [in the Fourth Sonata] and throughout the programme is the quasi-improvisatory quality Sudbin brings to proceedings, as if a fabulously endowed spirit were ad-libbing at the keyboard, going wherever his feverish imagination took him." - Gramophone Magazine, June 2025