Celebrated Russian maestro Evgeny Svetlanov leads the State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR in a complete cycle of Scriabin’s symphonic works. In this performance, they give a thrilling and effusive interpretation of Le poème de l’extase (“The Poem of Extasy”), Scriabin’s fourth major symphonic work.
Scriabin’s Fourth Symphony first saw daylight as a published verse text that laid out the new work’s so-called ‘philosophical program”: an exploration of the artistic ecstasy of the creator. In practical terms, he composed a symphonic of small melodic cells juxtaposed over bitter-sweet harmonies derived from synthetic chords he had invented, enabling modulation into nearly any key. This unorthodox approach to harmony meets with the broad outlines of a traditional sonata-form-like structure played in a single movement. Timelessness and suspense drive the work to its clamoring finale.
The Evgeny Svetlanov Foundation has kindly provided this program to us as part of its celebrations of the maestro's 90th birthday.
