Scriabin: Late Piano Pieces

“In his excellent sleeve note Paul Crossley suggests that Scriabin’s late piano pieces are more successful than several of the late sonatas because of their perfection of style and consistency. This disc certainly offers persuasive support for this view. Crossley catches the haunting and elusive character of this music and also conveys its many moods, from the radiant to the dark and obsessive. I particular admired the Feuillet d’album Op. 58 and the Poeme-Nocturne Op. 61, but I was also convinced by his demonstration that Scriabin’s pairs of pieces belong together, and that the Deux Poemes Op. 71 amount to a reworking of the fourth sonata in Scriabin’s later style. ALthough Crossley is a poetic rather than a transcendental pianist, he is capable of the virtuosity these pieces demand; I could not believe he could play the manic Presto which is Op. 67 No. 2 at the speed he does, let alone hold it together musically. All in all, a superb disc.”- Stephan Barber