2026 Edinburgh Fringe Festival - Piano Masterworks Recital
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN: Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64 “White Mass” (1911)
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Kreistleriana Op. 16 (1838)
CARL VINE: Threnody from Five Bagatelles (1994)
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN: Piano Sonata No. 5, Op.53 (1907)
PROGRAMME NOTES
Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 64 “White Mass”; (1911) Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who was a bridge from the late Romantic Era to early 20th Century modernism. By 1911, music was not only the means for Scriabin’s artistic expression but a vehicle for communicating his personal, esoteric, cosmic philosophy. He subtitled his Seventh Sonata, the "White Mass," its purpose being to evoke a holy ritual of spiritual purification from the dark forces he saw imbued in his Sixth Sonata. Scriabin regarded the Seventh with immense personal affection and the work was seen to represent an unearthly, apocalyptic liturgy, capable of transporting the listener from the physical world into a state of divine, immaterial bliss.
Rather than giving standard tempo indications in the score, Scriabin offers instructions as ecstatic, ritualistic commands: Prophétique, Mystérieusement murmuré, and Avec une joie débordante et divine (With a bursting and divine joy). The Seventh Sonata builds its sonic architecture upon an octatonic scale (alternating whole and half steps) and an abundance of unresolving tritones, denying the listener a traditional sense of resolution while generating continuous movement and a distant, radiant majesty.
The sonata opens as if in the middle of an action with an imperial, ominous proclamation accompanied by dark, dissonant chords that Scriabin described as holy trumpets calling humanity to awaken. The piece develops his own unique shifting textures of light and sound instead of conventional sonata form themes: crystalline arpeggios evoke blinding flashes of lightning; ghostly, quiet trills simulate distant, chiming church bells echoing across the sonic void.
Scriabin pushes the sound capabilities of the piano to its limits, demanding that the performer evoke a "pillar of fire" through dense, multi-layered polyrhythms. The climax features a terrifying arpeggiated chord consisting of nearly all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, followed by a dizzying dance of 25 keys struck simultaneously in rapid successions. It concludes with an eerie dissipation into the upper stratosphere, leaving a lingering, mystical silence.
Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (1838) Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
1. Äußerst bewegt (Extremely animated) in D minor
2. Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch (Very inwardly and not too quickly) in Bb
3. Sehr aufgeregt (Very agitated) in G minor
4. Sehr langsam (Very slowly) in Bb
5. Sehr lebhaft (Very lively) in G minor
6. Sehr langsam (Very slowly) in Bb
7. Sehr rasch (Very fast) in C minor/Eb
8. Schnell und spielend (Fast and playful) in G minor
Schumann’s Kreisleriana is one of his most famous sets of connected character pieces for piano – often referred to as a piano cycle. Comprising eight contrasting fantasy pieces, this cycle was composed during a four-day period in 1838 and dedicated to the Polish composer and pianist, Frédéric Chopin. The title and its concept are inspired by the writings of E. T. A. Hoffmann – specifically, his eccentric fictional character, Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler – as featured in Fantasy Pieces in Callot's Manner (1814) and The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1820–1822). The fictional Kreisler was a wildly brilliant, hyper-sensitive, and deeply erratic court conductor whose devotion to music brought him to the brink of madness. Schumann recognized a kindred spirit in this outsider, using Kreisler as a mirror to explore his own fractured psyche and the agonizing separation from his beloved Clara Wieck (later, Clara Schumann).
The structure of Schumann’s Kreisleriana is driven by the tensions between Schumann’s famous compositional alter egos: Florestan – the impetuous, stormy, and passionate extrovert who drives the erratic, fast-paced movements, and Eusebius – the introspective, dreamy, and melancholic introvert who dominates the tender, deeply poetic inner sections. Schumann plays with these contrasting personas to deliberately keep the listener off-balance: the music shifts instantly from breathless, manic desperation to moments of aching, intimate vulnerability.
Structurally, the odd-numbered movements are generally in dark minor keys: their frantic, and harmonically unstable characters appear are emphasized in breathless rhythmic patterns. The even-numbered movements offer more expansive, personal lyricism that feels like a private, diary-like confession to his beloved, Clara.
Kreisleriana also reveals Schumann’s compositional trademarks: incessant rhythmic instability and use of harmonic displacement. Throughout the entire cycle, Schumann creates perpetual movement through displaced accents, pervasive syncopations, and tied notes across beats and bar lines, ensuring that the listener rarely feels a secure, grounded pulse.
The cycle concludes with the unique and enigmatic eighth movement. The right hand plays a ghostly, dotted rhythm, displaced from the left hand's bass notes, creating an eerie, limping shadow effect. The music races quietly through the darkness, refusing to find a triumphant resolution before eventually sinking lower into the deep bass register of the piano, vanishing into obscurity. The listener is reminded of the character and dramatic power of Franz Schubert’s songs in Schumann’s creation.
Threnody from Five Bagatelles (1994) Carl Vine (b. 1954)
Australian composer and pianist, Carl Vine’s Threnody is the fifth and final of his Five Bagatelles for piano solo. Originally composed independently for his own solo piano performance at the 1994 Australian National AIDS Trust, the piece is subtitled, “for all the innocent victims.” The composer creates emotional catharsis with restraint and brevity, offering communal mourning and emotional healing through its musical tones.
The quiet isolation and hypnotic lament characterizing Threnody is built on a repetitive chord progression reminiscent of a Baroque chaconne. Over this harmonic foundation, Vine layers an achingly simple, vocal-like melody, gradually unfolding into a more complex texture and expression of grief. It consists of multiple voices at the extreme upper, middle and lower registers of the piano, physically stretching the instrument to evoke a stark, echoing void. The outer notes of the expanded chords gradually disperse, leaving the listener with the same repeated progression heard at the beginning. The work ends with a quiet, fading whisper, expressing dignified solace.
Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53 (1907) Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Scriabin’s Fifth Sonata is an inspired middle-period landmark, bridging his early Chopin-esque Romanticism with the radical, mystical harmonies of his later works. Like the preceding Fourth Sonata, the Fifth is driven by a psychological program of desire, flight, and ecstasy, transforming a gentle opening theme into a frenetic, celebratory climax.
Composed in 1907, the Fifth Sonata was completed in an intense six-day burst of inspiration immediately following his orchestral work, The Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54. Scriabin considered this Sonata to be a keyboard transformation of the same cosmic energy, prefacing the published piano score with an excerpt from his own poem: "I call you to life, mysterious forces! Drowned in the obscure depths of the creative spirit, timid embryos of life, to you I bring audacity!"
Rather than continuing with the traditional multi-movement sonata structure, Scriabin’s Fifth is his first sonata to employ a single, continuous movement. While still based on sonata-allegro form, this opened the possibilities to achieve his aesthetic goals including a more fluid narrative suggesting a spiritual awakening. All his later sonatas followed this single movement format. Scriabin also introduces a particular sonority built on fourths (rather than thirds) in this sonata, creating a shimmering sensation of suspension and weightlessness that became part of his musical language in future works.
The sonata opens with an eruption from the lowest registers of the piano to the highest before abruptly decaying. From the silence emerges a dreamy, hypnotic prologue (Languido), representing the "timid embryos of life" awaiting creation. Following this is a volatile journey of extreme emotional polarities. The main theme (Presto con allegrezza) is ecstatic, breathless, and driven by restless, syncopated rhythms. This frantic motion regularly collides with moments luxuriating in sensuality and opulent reverie (Meno vivo). Trills and rapid tremolos simulate flickering light and cosmic vibrations. The sonata culminates in a manic, feverish frenzy before ending exactly as it began – with an explosive, streak of sound that rockets into the highest register, vanishing into thin air without ever resolving to a home key.