Today I’ve posted another miniature from Alexander Scriabin’s middle period drawn from his Trois Morceaux, Op. 45, No. 1, titled “Feuillet d’album” first published in 1905. The tempo marking is andante piacevole. Perhaps what Scriabin had in mind was a memory of a youthful flirtation. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing it.

Comments welcome.

David

Piano: Baldwin Model L Artist Grand (6’3”) with lid fully open
Recorder: Korg MR-1000
Microphones: Earthworks TC-20 matched pair of small diaphragm omni-directional condenser mics in A-B configuration

Scriabin - Op. 45, No. 1 (1:16)

Hi David,
I'm just doing a brief check on things, but don't have time to listen to recordings now. I will listen to this tomorrow for sure. One thing though, please fix the file name (not sure what you've got here.... )

It should be:

scriabin-45-1-april.

Thanks in advance. See you tomorrow.....

Hi David,

I had a listen through, I haven't heard this piece. The ebb-and-flow type phrasing you use here is nice. I would have liked a little slower of a tempo, I don't know what piacevole means but it sounds italian we have so many different pianists from so many different countries, someone ought to be able to translate it

I have to agree with Monica, the tag is odd, it shows up like this on my computer upon being downloaded:

%27album%2C 45%2C 1

besides that the tag info looks good.

Sounds nice,

Riley

Hi Monica,

AVS Audio Converter adds .mp3 at the end of the file name, and if I delete it, AVS adds it right back again to differentiate it from a WAV file, so I can't control or prevent that. I believe it went through fine for the last piece, Scriabin's Prelude in B flat, Op. 37, No. 1. Could you try again it and see what happens? Or if it doesn't work, can you please delete the .mp3 at you end? I'd do it if it would allow me to, but I can't alter it at this end. I'll resubmit the recording now.

Thanks.

David

Hi Riley,

Thanks for the compliment on my playing. I appreciate that.

Andante paciavole means at a moderate tempo that is pleasing and graceful. There has never been a reliable and generally accepted chart that converts the major tempo markings into a range of metronome settings, although there have been many attempts to do so. Anyway, I believe that andante at top speed would be a setting of a quarter note = approximately 88. However, Scriabin calls for a metronome setting here of a quarter = 108 (actually moderato)! I've noticed in some instances that Scriabin is prone to kill a great melody due to impetuous and excessive speed. So as it is I'm playing this piece andante at around a quarter = 80 in what I consider to be still within the true upper range of andante. Where I've already taken a liberty as it is on the tempo, given Scriabin's preferred metronome setting, I would be hesitant to lower it even more.

I reloaded the file name and hope it works this time.

Thanks for your help.

David

A good one, David! Even to me this Scriabin says something, and I am no big fan of his.

Piacevole means pleasant and andante is the present participle of andare, to go (in present-day Italian - obviously in the past it also meant to walk). This verbal form is harly ever used and the verb having changed sense, it is often only foreign music lovers who know what it means. I would say the best translation is "At a pleasant walking pace". I certainly would do it no faster. Stick to your guns!

Hi Richard,

I'm glad you enjoyed this album leaf of Scriabin.

Yes, andante is often said to be "at a going pace". I recall reading in Rubinstein's autobiography his frustration at the lack of generally accepted meanings and understandings of tempo markings. As for andante, he was once in a room with another artist speaking about this very subject. So Artur got up from his chair and started walking "at a going pace" representing andante. The other pianist then stood up but walked at a different "going pace". Therein lies the conundrum, which, by the way, will never be solved if it hasn't already during the past 400 years of music history. Or at least I won't be holding my breath! From another perspective this is actually a good thing, as it confers some flexibility on pianists in the matter of choosing a tempo for a given work. So yes, I won't be changing my mind on this one.

David

Ok I just listened. Sounded very nice, David! I like the piece and I like that it's short. I like short pieces these days.

Regarding the file name...the file ending mp3 is the part that's correct. It's all the stuff in front of it that was all garbled. When you upload a file and then click submit, you can see the attachment and how it's named. Didn't it look funny to you? I would think it would look the same to everyone, but I could be wrong.

The replaced file looks fine now. I'll put it on the site after Riley uploads it.

David,

I have replaced your attachment with a link, check to see that it plays ok.

Hi Riley,

Yes, the play link works fine. Thanks!

When you get to the composer link, I'm thinking that should be Scriabin, Morceaux. Would you agree?

David

I put this in the miscellaneous section, since another Feuillet was already there.
But now I see that it is from a set of Morceaux so I will move it. (I wish I would have known ahead of time...)

Hi Monica,

Thanks for your nice compliment on my playing. I appreciate it!



Usually I concentrate on character pieces and try not to go over six pages. The reason is that my practice time is very limited. But there's another factor too. Ever since I was very young, I've been in love with the genre of the character piece. Once in a while here, I feel obligated to offer a big piece, which I do, but when I return to the character pieces, it feels just like arriving home again. I think of myself as a miniaturist, not in a pejorative way, but just by personal preference.

I think we've drawn even with each other. Yes, I missed the tag when I submitted the music file, but... I believe you missed my mention of the Trois Morceaux in my initial post. Shows that we're both human.

Good idea! Moving that Scriabin--Miscellaneous "Feuillet d'album", Op. 58, played by K. Jensen to Morceaux consolidates all three recordings into one place .

Thanks for your help on this.

David

Beautiful piece but too short! Your playing is open and detailed as always but there is limited time to develop ideas. Perhaps that's the difficulty behind it?

Hi Pantelis,



Yes, I know. I've heard this from a couple of other listeners as well. They wanted the beautiful music to continue... but it doesn't. This album leaf is only a couple of pages long--a true miniature.

As I mentioned to Riley earlier in this thread, the first issue I had was to find an effective tempo. So I lowered it from Scriabin's choice of a quarter note = 108 down to around 80, but still in the upper range of andante. That helped in imparting the expression. The other matter was that although I visualized this piece as a dalliance, I wanted it to develop with a momentary fervor not often heard in this music, and feel I accomplished that well. While I certainly played close attention to such things as phrasing, dynamics, voice leading, pedaling, the long line etc., my choice of tempo and wanting the sound not to be pallid (for ex. Horowitz or Neuhaus) were both important considerations to me in my interpretation and wanting to put the piece across to the listener.

Although perhaps too brief a vignette of life, I'm glad it still perked your interest. Thanks for listening!

David

Wonderful piece, and wonderfully played.
For me, it works at this tempo; I notice that the other recording that the Society has is the same playing length. Perhaps someone will see fit to do this at a slower tempo and post it.
I can't remember if anyone else pointed out how good your phrasing is in this recording - it always seems to "know where it is going". Thank you.