Scriabin: Piano Works Olli Mustonen

• 12 etudes, Op. 8
• 1No. 1 in C sharp major: Allegro01:30
• 2No. 2 in F sharp minor: A capriccio, con forza02:12
• 3No. 3 in B minor: Tempestoso02:01
• 4No. 4 in B major: Piacevole01:53
• 5No. 5 in E major: Brioso02:19
• 6No. 6 in A major: Con grazia01:38
• 7No. 7 in B flat minor: Presto tenebroso, agitato02:07
• 8No. 8 in A flat major: Lento03:31
• 9No. 9 in G sharp minor: Alla ballata05:07
• 10No. 10 in D flat major: Allegro02:00
• 11No. 11 in B flat minor: Andante cantabile03:46
• 12No. 12 in D sharp minor: Patetico02:35
• 6 Preludes, Op. 13
• 13No. 1 in C major: Maestoso02:27
• 14No. 2 in A minor: Allegro00:49
• 15No. 3 in G major: Andante01:25
• 16No. 4 in E minor: Allegro01:09
• 17No. 5 in D major: Allegro00:59
• 18No. 6 in B minor: Presto01:24
• 5 Preludes, Op. 16
• 19No. 1 in B major: Andante02:38
• 20No. 2 in G sharp minor: Allegro01:26
• 21No. 3 in G flat major: Andante cantabile01:52
• 22No. 4 in E flat minor: Lento01:00
• 23No. 5 in F sharp minor: Allegretto00:39
• Piano Sonata no. 10, Op. 70
• 24Piano Sonata No. 10 in C major, Op. 7012:34
• Vers la flamme (Poème), Op. 72
• 25Vers la flamme, Op. 7208:00
• Total Runtime01:07:01

Info for Scriabin: Piano Works

This album features the acclaimed Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen with piano works by Alexander Scriabin, which have become his signature pieces in recital. The virtuoso sets of Etudes and Preludes cover a wide range of late-Romantic expressions, from heroic to religious, ecstatic to melancholic. The Sonata No. 10 is regarded as one of Scriabin’s greatest works. The collection culminates with the pianistic tour-de-force of Vers la flamme, an astonishing piece famously championed by the late Vladimir Horowitz.

'Olli Mustonen has gained many admirers over the years for his fresh conceptions of the standard (and sometimes not-so-standard) repertoire; he has, along the way, found many detractors who feel as strongly that he allows his personality to get in the way of the music too frequently. He often adopts a quick, dry, yet bouncy staccatissmo articulation, which is cited in many reviews of his performances. Interestingly, those descriptions sound pretty close to those of another pianist—Glenn Gould. He, too, was labeled as a certain type of pianist throughout his life, one who was better suited to this music or that. Regardless of one’s opinion of Gould, however, at his best he infused the music that he came to with new life—one such instance being his phenomenal take on Scriabin’s Fifth Piano Sonata. Though the initial sound world of the performer might not match one’s preconception of that of the composer’s, often it is what the performer has to say about the music that counts most.

Mustonen certainly brings out the quirkiness in much of this music, but if there is one composer who can take it, it is Scriabin. The recital begins with the early set of Etudes, op. 8. The pianist brings the requisite amount of energy to pull off the faster, more virtuosic ones (the first one rightly makes one nervous in this performance), though he is equally at home in the more lyrical and mesmerizing (and in his hands highly contrapuntal) slower ones. The 11th etude is not so much sumptuous as intricate and ornamented, while the sixth etude (featuring sixths in the right hand) dances and sparkles, betraying its salon-like qualities. Though this is early Scriabin, this is Scriabin nonetheless. The two sets of preludes that follow consist of rather short (one lasting less than 40 seconds) mood pieces. Mustonen handles them with just as much care as the more demanding etudes; his simple way with them allows their character to shine through. The demanding 10th Piano Sonata follows. Once again, Mustonen seems to feel this piece contrapuntally—the chords that emerge are as though through an x-ray. The sounds never wash together; we are never bathed in their color. Rather, the notes twinkle like individual stars in the night. Vers la flamme rounds out the recital. It is taken much slower than normal (Horowitz’s 5:45 and Richter’s 6:45 to Mustonen’s 8:00). There is, however, ample buildup and an entrancing opening section where time indeed seems to stop. This may not be the normal way to play Scriabin, but it is highly captivating.

Though Mustonen may at first make one question whether he is the right man for this job, the recording itself proves his case: The recital, like the composer’s career, which it mirrors, is a joy from beginning to end. Sound quality is excellent, as is my experience with Ondine. I look forward to whatever repertoire Mustonen takes on next—his insights into the music are, like Gould’s were in the 1960s, intellectually revealing and emotionally satisfying. Highly recommended.' (FanFare, Scott Noriega)

Olli Mustonen, piano

Recordings: Järvenpää Hall, 20–22.6.2011
Executive Producer: Reijo Kiilunen
Recording Producer: seppo siirala
Recording Engineer: Enno Mäemets
Iinstrument: Fazioli F278

A 24-bit recording in DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition)

Olli Mustonen
has a unique place on today’s music scene both as a pianist, conductor and composer. As a pianist, he has challenged and fascinated audiences throughout Europe and America with his brilliant technique and startling originality. At the heart of his piano playing Mustonen has a deeply held conviction that each performance must have the freshness of a first performance and this tenacious spirit of discovery leads him to explore many areas of repertoire beyond the established canon.

As a soloist, Mustonen has worked with most of the world’s leading orchestras, partnering conductors such as Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Blomstedt, Boulez, Chung, Dutoit, Eschenbach, Gergiev, Harnoncourt, Masur, Nagano, salonen and saraste. Mustonen is also increasingly making his mark as a conductor with recent highlights including leading the staatskapelle Weimar, West Australian symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne symphony Orchestra. Recent conducting engagements include a return to the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Northern sinfonia and Tchaikovsky symphony Orchestra and soloist appearances with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Valery Gergiev.

Olli Mustonen’s recording catalogue is typically broad ranging and distinctive. His recording for Decca of Preludes by shostakovich and Alkan received the Edison Award and Gramophone Award for the Best instrumental Recording. in 2002 Mustonen signed a recording contract with Ondine, with whom he has released several albums, including the Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with Tapiola sinfonietta.

Alexander Scriabin’s
creative career described a brilliant but tragic trajectory. He began as a pianistic prodigy in an elaborated Chopinesque style, as exemplified by his early Piano Concerto, sonatas and etudes. But his development was prodigious, and by the start of the 20th century he was capitalising with truly Russian fervour on the influence of Wagner – and the imaginative stimulus of the grandiose esoteric beliefs he was developing from Nietzsche and Theosophy – to create a personal language heady and erotically voluptuous in its chromatic freedom, extravagant and flamboyant in its gestures. This new language reached its apotheosis in the orchestral Poème de l’extase and Promethée and the heaven-storming Fifth, aloofly hermetic sixth, and triumphant seventh (White Mass) Piano sonatas. These latter works, however, already show a trend towards concision (they are all in one movement) and to allusive but logical development out of germinal motifs and chordal structures – characteristics which scriabin continued to explore and refine in the ever more inward, mystically self-communing piano works of his last years. in scriabin, virtuosity is innate in the musical ideas themselves: it is the medium of communication with the divine, the portal to Nirvana.

Apart from his sonatas scriabin devoted himself primarily to the same lyric, miniature forms that Chopin had established and practised: nocturnes, preludes, impromptus, mazurkas, etudes. But through his swift stylistic development he transformed these genres into something rich and strange – a process that can be traced, for example, in his complete etudes. The great etude cycles, from Chopin through Liszt to Debussy and Ligeti, always exhibit a two-fold aspect: on the one hand the exploration and mastery of specific technical issues, and on the other the making of enthralling, poetic music out of that process of exploration. scriabin’s etudes, of which he composed 26 in all, display this characteristic duality.

Booklet for Scriabin: Piano Works