Igor Hmelnitsky (1920-1987) plays Scriabin
Exceptional Scriabin performances from a pianist who may be unfamiliar to many can be heard here.
Simon Nicholls Interviewed by Sherry Grant
Click the title above to see Sherry Grant of the Scriabin Society of the USA interviewing our Vice-Chair Simon Nicholls on YouTube. Simon speaks about the late Aleksandr Serafimovich Scriabin, and about the relation of Scriabin’s thought to his creative work.
Scriabin talk by Dr. Lindsey Macchiarella (USA)
In a video recording made specially for the Scriabin Association, Dr Lindsey Macchiarella presents her paper, entitled ‘Skryabin and Wagner: a Reception Study’
Hupfeld Piano Rolls
Read here for information on new realisations of Scriabin’s piano roll recordings for Hupfeld.
Scriabin@150: Full report
A full report of the below conference is now available on the website here.
International Scriabin 150 Festival, 11-13th November 2022
Scriabinists are warmly encouraged to attend the above festival online, organised by the Scriabin Society of America (www.scriabinsociety.com). The festival will celebrate “the composer’s 150th birthday with all the things her excelled at and believed in.” Full details of the festival’s programme can be found at the festival’s website: https://www.artsinfinitypress.com/scriabin150. A full schedule is also on the association’s website here.
Obituary : Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, 1947 – 2022
Greetings from the Scriabin Foundation
A message from Alexander Serafimovich to the Scriabin Association in the 150th year since the composer’s birth.
Superb Scriabin editions completed
Volume III of the Bärenreiter edition of Scriabin’s sonatas, containing the sonatas numbered six, seven and eight, is now available. For more information regarding this and other new editions click here.
A two-day conference to celebrate the 150 years’ anniversary of Scriabin is taking place in Reading on September 23-24, including a keynote address by Marina Frolova-Walker and a recital by Anita D’Attilis . For details, and to book, go to http://www.scriabin150.org.
New publication marking 150th anniversary of Scriabin’s birth
As a fitting tribute on this occasion, which falls on the 6th January 2022, Boydell and Brewer are publishing this month an anthology of entirely new essays and investigations on the subject of Alexander Scriabin and his work by internationally distinguished scholars. The title is Demystifying Scriabin and the roster of authors includes our own co-chairman, Simon Nicholls, Marina Frolova-Walker, Anna Gawboy, Rebecca Mitchell and Simon Morrison.
The volume is edited by Vassilis Kallis and Kenneth Smith. Full details can be found here
NEWLY AVAILABLE SCRIABIN RECORDING
Scriabin: Feuillet d’album op. 45 no. 1 played by the composer.
A piano roll recording (Hupfeld, 1908) transcribed by the Pianola Institute. This rare piano roll has not to our knowledge previously been available in an audio recording. The recording can be heard here.
Scriabin @ 150 Conference and Celebration
The call for papers is now released for the Scriabin@150 Conference, to be held in Reading, UK on Saturday 12th– Sunday 13thMarch 2022. Please see our website for full information:http://www.scriabin150.orgBrief extract from the call for papers (deadline: Monday 1 November 2021):2022 marks the 150th anniversary of Alexander Scriabin’s birth on 6th January 1872. Few composers of western art music have provided as much fascination. Scriabin offered a unique blend of esoteric mysticism, ethereal pianism, progressive harmonic technique, philosophically-driven composition, colour-music experiments, and more. For 150 years he has stimulated lively scholarly debate and new musical experiences. The Scriabin @ 150 conference marks this celebratory year as a chance to reflect on all aspects of the composer’s unique legacy. The conference will be held on Saturday 12th – Sunday 13th March, 2022 in Reading, UK, and will feature a keynote address from Professor Marina Frolova-Walker (Cambridge University), a piano recital from Anita D’Attillis, and other Scriabin-related events. We invite contributions for paper submissions, group panel discussions, lecture recitals, and research posters.
Russian Piano Masterpieces: Scriabin
A free online lecture discussing Scriabin’s sonatas will be given by Professor Marina Frolova-Walker FBA and Peter Donohoe CBE as part of Gresham College’s free online lectures. Full details and registration can be found here/
Obituary – Irina Ivanovna Sofronitskya 1920-2020
A living link with the history of the Scriabin museum and with the family histories of Scriabin and Sofronitsky has passed away. An obituary by Simon Nicholls can be read here.
Scriabin Museum Links
The following link contains details of the 100 year history of the Scriabin Museum in Moscow, housed at the composer’s last apartment in the city. There are fascinating documents, photos and memorabilia displayed on the pages throughout. The site can be visited here.
There is also an article by the museum’s director, Alexander Lazarev, concerning activities of the museum and its latest innovations in researching and exploring Scriabin’s ideas. The page can be visited here.
Talk by Simon Nicholls on The Notebooks of Alexander Skryabin – Friday 11th October, 7pm. SCRSS, 320 Brixton Road,London, SW9 6AB
Simon Nicholls will give a talk for the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies (SCRSS) about The Notebooks of Alexander Skryabin. The talk will include consideration of Scriabin’s attitude to socialism and a short account of how this mystical idealist was posthumously adopted into the Soviet canon. Full details can be found on the SCRSS’s website www.scrss.org.uk and here on the Scriabin Association.
Culture Spot LA Interview
Simon Nicholls and Michael Pushkin, translators of Scriabin’s notebooks for Oxford University Press, were interviewed by Néstor Castiglione for Culture Spot LA (culturespotla.com) about the project, their views and methods. The interview can be read here.
New Publication:
The Notebooks of Alexander Skryabin – translated by Simon Nicholls and Michael Puskin with annotations and commentary by Simon Nicholls and forword by Vladmir Ashkenazy.
The Scriabin Association is pleased to announce the worldwide release of a new book translating the complete notebooks of Alexander Scriabin for the first time in English, along with annotations and commentary by Simon Nicholls. The book is published by Oxford University Press and is the result of years of research by the association’s Co-chair, Simon Nicholls. Further Information can be found here.
“truly an essential addition to Scriabin literature” BBC Music Magazine
New Publication:
THE ALEXANDER SCRIABIN COMPANION- History, Perfor
mance, and Lore by Lincoln Ballard & Matthew Bengtson – with John Bell Young
This important new publication from the publishers Rowman & Littlefield, is the first book in English on Scriabin for several years. Part One details the reception and performance history of Scriabin’s solo piano and orchestral music. Part Two explores four topics in Scriabin’s reception: the myths generated by Scriabin’s biographers, his claims to synaesthesia or “colour-hearing,” his revival in 1960s America as a proto-Flower Child, and the charges of anti-Russianness levelled against his music. Part Three investigates stylistic context and performance practice in the piano music, and considers the domains of sound, rhythm, and harmony. It offers interpretive strategies for deciphering Scriabin’s challenging scores at the keyboard.
Lincoln Ballard has written a description of the book for the Scriabin Association along with details of how to purchase it at an offer price. Please click here.
Scriabin Association Concert Saturday 29th April 2017 at 7pm
In celebration of the 145th anniversary of his birth The Scriabin Association is pleased to announce its next concert, to be held at Coventry University’s Ellen Terry Building, on 29th April 2017 at 7pm. The evening will include performances from five pianists in an enticing programme to include Preludes, Dances and the 2nd, 5th and 8th Sonatas. Those who attended the Association’s centenary concert will know a thrilling evening awaits. Thanks to the support of Coventry University’s Faculty of Arts the evening is also free admission. Click here for full details of venue, programme and performers.
Complete Scriabin Preludes by Anthony Hewitt
A new critically acclaimed recording of the Scriabin Preludes by Anthony Hewitt has been released by Champ Hill Records. An article by Anthony discussing his preparation of the works and their harmonic development can be found on the Association’s Articles page or here.
Scriabin Association Honorary President
The Scriabin Association is delighted to announce Aleksandr Serafimovich Scriabin as its honorary president. See here for details.
James Kreiling – The late piano works
For details of a new recording of the late piano works please click here. To accompany the launch of the recordings a concert will take place on March 18th, 6.30pm, in Peckham. More details here.
Pavel Vasil’evich Lobanov (1923–2016)
Pavel Vasil’evich Lobanov sadly passed away at the beginning of the year. Amongst his many talents, he was a pioneer in Scriabin research, and leaves a body of work which is invaluable. A tribute to his life and work can be found here.
Barenreiter Urtext Editions
Coinciding with the centenary year Barenreiter have produced exceptional new editions of the sonatas (volumes I, II & IV currently published with volume III in preparation). To find out more, including a short piece written for the Scriabin Association from the editor of the edition, Christopher Flamm, click here
Mallorca Summer Academy
The Scriabin Association is pleased to promote this wonderful festival. The event will have a focus on Scriabin’s music with performances and lectures from internationally recognised artists and scholars. Full details can be found here.
EP
TA Publication
An article by Scriabin Association co-founder, Darren Leaper, entitled, “A Recorded History of Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Music: From the Composer as Pianist, to his First Pioneers at the Moscow Conservatory to Present Day” will be published across the next two EPTA piano journals in April and September 2015. Visit here for information of the publication.
Europees Skrjabin Genootschap (European Scriabin Society)
The European Scriabin society (based in Holland) organise a number of Scriabin events, the next of which is a piano recital by Helena Basilova. Details can be found here.
Past Events:
Towards the Mystery – An evening of music and words by Simon Nicholls to mark the death centenary of Alexander Scriabin.
Pushkin House (Bloomsbury Square, London) on Thursday, May 7, 2015
Bogliasco Foundation 
The Scriabin Association is proud to link with the Bogliasco Foundation and are cross publicising each group’s upcoming Scriabin events to mark the composer’s death centenary. The Bogliasco foundation has events in both New York and Bogliasco, Italy (where Scriabin lived and worked for a time). Details below or at the Bogliasco website here.
An Evening of Scriabin’s Piano Music
25th April 2015, 7pm – Ensemble Room, Warwick Arts Centre, CV4 7AL
The Scriabin Association presents an evening concert celebrating the piano music of Scriabin in honour of his death centenary. A collective of pianists will contribute repertoire spanning the composer’s compositional life including half of the 10 sonatas (3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 9th). The event will be held in the Ensemble Room, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry on April 25th 7pm. Free admission. The full programme of works and performers can be viewed here.
For further information please contact us or phone 02475 013905.
‘Towards the Flame’ – a lecture / recital by Simon Nicholls
7th February 2015, 7pm at King Henry VIII School Hall, Warwick Road, Coventry CV3 6AQ;
We are pleased to announce the Scriabin Association’s inaugural event will be a lecture/recital entitled, ‘Towards the Flame’ given by the association’s chairman, and Scriabin scholar, Simon Nicholls. The evening’s talk will be illustrated by extracts of the earliest known through to very last compositions of Scriabin, all performed by Simon Nicholls.
We welcome honorary guests Dina Parakhina (professor RCM and RNCM) and Dr. Richard Overill (Kings College, London). We are grateful to the support of King Henry VIII School for this event.