Scriabin: Preparation for the Final Mystery

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Alexander Nemtin's brave realization of the "Preparation for the final mystery" (from Scriabin's magnum opus, Mysterium) enables us to hear its awe-inspiring conception in all its glory. Working from sketches, Nemtin presents a convincing manifestation of Scriabin's thought. The intensity of this piece is unremitting. To listen straight through is an exhausting but ultimately uplifting experience, one aided by this thoroughly committed performance from Ashkenazy and his Berlin forces. Even though the harmonic language is extremely concentrated, the progress of the work remains involving, natural, and, above all, gripping. The music is frequently hypnotic, often breathing an all-encompassing, pantheistic mysticism. The soloists, particularly the soprano Anna-Kristina Kaappola and the pianist Alexei Lubimov, are superb. The recording aptly conveys the requisite sense of space, while simultaneously allowing every detail to come through. The coupling, Nuances, comprises a selection of Scriabin's pieces orchestrated to form a ballet. Ashkenazy's performance highlights the elusive nature of this music, as in the flighty fourth movement or in the twilight world of the 12th. A treat for all fans of mature Scriabin, sumptuously recorded and expertly played and sung. --Colin Clarke

Tracks:

Nuances: i. Pas vite (Poeme Languide, Op. 52 No. 3)
Nuances: ii. Allegretto (Poeme, Op. 59 No. 1)
Nuances: iii. Con delicatezza (Feuillet d'album, Op. 58)
Nuances: iv. Vivo (Poeme Aile, Op. 51 No. 3)
Nuances: v. Con delicatezza Cristallina (Desir, Op. 57 No. 1)
Nuances: vi. Avec enchantement (Caresse Dansee, Op. 57 No. 1)
Nuances: vii. Allegro fantastico (Etude, Op. 65 No. 1)
Nuances: viii. Avec une grace capricieuse (Poeme-nocturne, Op. 61)
Nuances: ix. Fier, belliqueux (Prelude, Op. 74 No. 5)
Nuances: x. Fantastique (Poeme, Op. 71 No. 1)
xi. Sauvage, belliqueux (Prelude, Op. 59 No. 2)
Nuances: xii. Allegretto (Masque, Op. 63 No. 1)
Nuances: xiii. Gracieux, delicat (Etrangete, Op. 63 No. 2)
Nuances: xiv. Molto vivace (Etude, Op. 65 No. 3)
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part I: Universe: Lent, imperieux
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part I: Universe: Douloureux, dechirant
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part I: Universe: Etrange, charme
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part I: Universe: Flamboyant
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part I: Universe: Ondoyant -- le reve prend forme
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part I: Universe: Doux, fremissant
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part I: Universe: Volando
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part I: Universe: Piu mosso -- de plus en plus triomphant

Tracks:

Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part II: Mankind: Giubiloso, extatique
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part II: Mankind: Grandiose et enigmatique
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part II: Mankind: Solennemente, Rituale
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part II: Mankind: Dechirant -- dedicazione
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part II: Mankind: Religioso -- mysterieusement -- fermamente luminoso
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part II: Mankind: Con timidezza -- misterioso, concentre -- avec une volupte radieuse -- tres dansant

Tracks:

Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Allegro con collera -- lento timidamente -- febbrilmente
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Lent, vague, indecis
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Tres lent, contemplatif
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Avec un intense desir
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Infernale
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Sublime
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Con timidezza -- con agitazione -- con ira -- con rabbia
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Per enigmi, inafferrando
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Contemplatif -- supplicare -- con lagrime -- devoto
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: Misterioso, avec une ardeur profonde et voilee
Preparation For The Final Mystery - Part Three: Transfiguration: calme -- extatique

Amazon.com

Alexander Nemtin's brave realization of the "Preparation for the final mystery" (from Scriabin's magnum opus, Mysterium) enables us to hear its awe-inspiring conception in all its glory. Working from sketches, Nemtin presents a convincing manifestation of Scriabin's thought. The intensity of this piece is unremitting. To listen straight through is an exhausting but ultimately uplifting experience, one aided by this thoroughly committed performance from Ashkenazy and his Berlin forces. Even though the harmonic language is extremely concentrated, the progress of the work remains involving, natural, and, above all, gripping. The music is frequently hypnotic, often breathing an all-encompassing, pantheistic mysticism. The soloists, particularly the soprano Anna-Kristina Kaappola and the pianist Alexei Lubimov, are superb. The recording aptly conveys the requisite sense of space, while simultaneously allowing every detail to come through. The coupling, Nuances, comprises a selection of Scriabin's pieces orchestrated to form a ballet. Ashkenazy's performance highlights the elusive nature of this music, as in the flighty fourth movement or in the twilight world of the 12th. A treat for all fans of mature Scriabin, sumptuously recorded and expertly played and sung. --Colin Clarke

Customer Reviews:

A Marvelous Musical epic.......2007-03-19

Several years ago I procured the Scriabin/Nemptin mega opus "Mysterium": The final Preparation, and I simply wanted to write my brief but sincere appreciation of Scriabin's last, uncompleted work. As I am not a musician I cannot analyze in detail the complex technical details of this significant orchestral epic. In the last ten or so years I have come to love Scriabin's works of his "late" period during which he composed his "Prometheus: Poem of fire," as well as many intricate, harmonically rich and sensuous piano works exemplified by such treasures as "Vers la Flamme"; "Poem Nocturne"; "Masques"; plus many others. Some reviewers have expressed their dissapointments regarding "The Final Preparation," stating that it tends to be more the work of Nemptin rather than that of Scriabin. To me the work is quite magisterial and epic in design. The language is complex and reveals Scriabin's penchant for rhe richly dense, chromatic (but not overly chromatic)densities typical of his later creative subtleties. The work is divided in three parts, or sections: "Universe," Mankind," Transiguration." Several reviewers have already commented on this. What I find fascinating is the marvelous orchestration of several piano works in Part 1. The second disc is very dramatic and laced with interrelated musical themes highlighed by choral sections which add to or even augment the atmospheric, almost dream-like nuances which pervade the work as a whole. Perhaps Scriabin was not an impressionist in the strictist sense; yet several passages do evince that subtle, nuanced impressionist/symbolist aesthetic which was the "au courant" musical language of many works composed during the early 20th century. Much of the harmonic language is characterised by modal development, augmented sonorities, and musical ninths. At best the work is pre-modernist and tonal, not bitonal nor hintful of budding serial techniques developed later by Roslavets, Lourie and other later composers. Scriabin,not unlike several contemporary composers, such as Debussy, Bax, Ireland, Lyatoshinsky, Cyril Scott,evinces that musical nuance that I often refer to the neologistic term "sensuosity." Scriabin's influence became noteworthy among several of his surviving Russian (and some non-Russian) contemporaries. I highly recommend this wonderful recording.

Not completely Scriabinisque yet amazing work in its own right.......2007-02-25

This re-construction of Scriabin's Final Mystery is very controvesial, when it comes to how faithful Alexander Nemtin was to Scriabin's own sketches when he orchestrated them and when he added his own bits to extend the work to this gigantic scale.

But whether Scriabin or Nemtin, the work itself is well worth listening for its originality, kaleidoscopic complexity and megalomaniac vision. Performance is very commited and overwhelmingly powerful. You can listen to this as a huge piano concerto, as solo piano part takes main part. Far richer experience than Busoni's uninspired piano concerto.

How much love is it going to take?.......2004-08-24

Facts: Is this a Scriabin composition? No. Is it close to any other Scriabin composition? No, though his spirit seems to soar through it. Would he have written it like this? Impossible to give an objective answer but in my view, no.
Then why buy this? Because it's probably the most intense musical experience you'll have for a long time coming.
Alexander Nemtin used the 52 unnumbered pages of sketches as Scriabin left them on the table of his study when he died in 1915. Scriabin didn't write chronologically: when an idea came to his mind, he'd write it down immediately. So even a mere chronological reconstruction would seem a difficult task. Instead Nemtin chose to 'compose' a performable version of the sketches, a project that grew and grew into the massive work we have before us. That it owes more to Messiaen than to Scriabin is a minor element: you cannot omit cultural developments and you cannot confine yourself to pastiche or epigonism. Nemtin seems to have been posessed with Scriabins' holy fire and gave us (t)his work. An important fact we need to consider is the context to which Scriabin/Nemtin wrote this: it was to be the music performed to the Apocalypse (bare with me for a minute, please), with all the peoples of the world as its performers. Huge bells hanging out of zeppelins would call upon humanity to enter a new age of spiritual enlightenment (with Scriabin as the supreme being). If this sounds a wee bit overambitious, then consider the fact that Nemtin pulled it off musically. Much in the same (opposite) way Messiaen did with his Quatuor written in a Silesian war prisonner camp.
Facts (bis): Is it any good? Yes, even better than that. Should I buy it? If you trust my opinion, yes. Why? Because you will feel the genuine honesty in this music. You will understand where and why Scriabin wanted to take us and you will be showered with miraculous sunlight. A must-have!

All That Glistens Is Not Gold.......2002-04-20

I viewed this release with great trepidation for it claims to realize part of the work which occupied, indeed obsessed, Scriabin near the end of his foreshortened life. The resources assembled here under Vladimir Ashkenazy are impressive as is the price of this release (many three-disc opera recordings are less). I suppose what stood out the most is that someone had purchased this recording, paid dearly for it, and brought it back to the store, which returned it rather unceremoniously back to the shelf. Fortunately I did not have to buy this recording in order to listen to it and find out that The Preparation, like The Mysterium itself, remain as they were when Scriabin died---unrealized and unattainable pipe dreams.

Nemtin was working from Scriabin's sketches, the most detailed of which are for the first part of the Preparation. If Nemtin had addressed this and left the rest well enough alone, we might have something interesting. Instead what we have is a partial skeleton left by Scriabin which Nemtin has fleshed out; i.e. a well organized jumble of ideas which is at best an unlistenable mess.

Why did this work occupy Nemtin for so long? Because it is a bottomless pit. What we have here is less Scriabin and more Nemtin's own pathology. There are fragments of music which sound like Scriabin, phrases which are lifted directly from the late piano sonatas and a whole lot of general incoherence. It sounds as though Nemtin consulted with the pyschic network or held seances to determine where to go with the music next. The inescapable image of Scriabin spinning in his grave comes to mind. Yes, Scriabin may have been crazy, but not this crazy.

Those seeking some quasi-mystical drug experience in music should imbibe polluting substances and go listen to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon again.

The two stars are for the performers who do a remarkable job given the source material. (But what was Ashkenazy thinking?)
The other work Nuances, a ballet suite of orchestrated piano works, fares better but fails to save this release. Even this
is of limited interest, for like similarly orchestrated works by Chopin, these pieces suffer by comparison to the originals.

Sorry, but like I should have been paid for listening to this and if Scriabin were alive, he'd sue!

Astounding.......2002-04-06

This massive work is the most emotionally shattering work I beieve I have ever heard. The Second "Mankind" is as dark a picture of the human race I have ever heard. Even though this work is over 150 minutes there is a definite cohesion throughout all three movements. The amazing thing is that all three movements also are stand alone in their approach. This work is simply shattering. More then one hearing will definitely be needed to get the sense of balance and cohesion in this stunning Work.

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