Alexander Scriabin - Fantasy in B Minor, Op. 28 (Hamelin)

Alexander Scriabin’s Fantasy in B Minor is a monumental late Romantic work composed at the turn of the century, when the composer’s early period was at its twilight. According to legend, Scriabin did not recall composing the piece, as when his friend Leonid Sabaneyev performed it, Scriabin absent-mindedly (or trollingly) denied ever hearing it before. As a hazardously difficult piece of mighty proportions, the Fantasy is littered with precarious leaps between loaded chords, whirlwind arpeggi from one end of the piano to the other, confusing contrapuntal voicing between interlocking fingers of both hands, and requires massive stamina with little reprieve. This masterpiece gives much reason to marvel at the thought of a five-foot-tall man composing seven-foot-tall music. The Fantasy is roughly structured in sonata form, with an exposition, development, and recapitulation. Throughout the piece in the various sections, one will constantly encounter the two perennial motifs: the dotted triplet rhythm (mm. 1 third beat) and the octave-doubled quintuplet (or sextuplet in the major key sections, rarely quadruplet) extended ornamental turn (mm. 5 third beat). The exposition contains three sections. The main subject begins in the key of B Minor, venturing outward and rarely returning to the original tonic. It consists of block chords fitted with extended but still functional tonal characteristics. In the second subject, a graceful flowing melody in the relative key of D Major, one among Scriabin’s finest, enters the scene. Here in its second iteration, the composer imitates the melody in another voice, with both voices borne by the right hand, offset by one measure. In contrast to the second subject’s lamblike gentleness, the lockstep codetta imparts the emotion of open joy; a dignified imperious theme culminates into a series of chromatic chordal cascades of French Sixths concluding the exposition on a high note. A sudden anti-Picardy third would twist the tonality to D Minor and onward to F Major. Starting in F Major, the development section takes hold. The first theme and the codetta of the exposition figures most heavily at the start. The dense sevenths harmonies slowly morph the chord progression toward C Major and then to G Major. The next section sees Scriabin dancing around the dominant of the key, in the form of heavy triplet tremoli, tantalizing the listener with but refusing to simply surrender the implied harmonies. The Mystic Chord almost appears, but is not completely spelled out. The climax comes crashing down a series of French Sixths (different from the one in the exposition codetta), thereby resolving onto the original tonic’s dominant key of F-sharp Major, and rolls straight into an ominous, rumbling recapitulation. The recapitulation, beginning with the reprisal of the first subject, is tense and foreboding. Low-frequency quaking emits from underground in the low registers, as if heralding the imminent approach of an anomalous cosmic entity. With this in mind, the subject serves in a transitory role more so than the introductory one it had in the exposition. The key slowly climbs chromatically through a series of augmented chord resolutions. The thrust of the transition accelerates with each iteration of the broken arpeggi in the right-hand. As the texture changes to block chords, the tension grows taut, and the pressure mounts to a breaking point. The tension finally snaps and the moment of release arrives. The coming of the second subject in the key of B Major is nothing short of rapturous. The feeling a cripple has when he is able to finally walk, when a blindman can see for the first time, when a pre-deployed soldier learns that the war is won; this sense of triumph is what is encapsulated under the epiphanous pen of Alexander Nikolayevich. The imitative counterpoint appears, as usual, but this time it is shared between both hands. After a left-hand passage with wide arpeggi and doubled notes, the piece braces itself, yet again, for the oncoming codetta, which faithfully reprises the corresponding section in the exposition. The final coda further develops the first and second subjects. The first subject, in A Minor, slowly degenerates into a dazed slurry of chromaticism. The second subject snaps the piece back awake. The first iteration of the subject floats above waves of pulsating left-hand notes, and the second more urgent iteration has the right hand engage in frenzied monologue, which quickly sours and angrily modulates to the decisive finale, one filled with arpeggi of the likes never seen before. The Fantasy, in the original block chord texture, concludes on a Picardy third. Date: 1900 Catalogue: Op. 28 Sections: Exposition: 0:04 Development: 3:18 Recapitulation: 4:08 Coda: 6:27 Performer: Marc-André Hamelin on piano Note: This channel does not own the score or audio, and they are used for non-commercial purposes.