Read on to discover 7 blood-curdling pieces about death and the afterlife, as chosen by pianist Yevgeny Sudbin...
Scriabin Vers la Flamme
The pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who met Scriabin when he was ten years old, said that Scriabin had this fantasy of engulfing the whole world in fire – of destroying it and creating something better out of it. Vers la Flamme, meaning ‘Towards the Flame’, embodies this concept, conjuring the image of a fire that gets bigger and bigger until it engulfs the whole piano. I love the way that Scriabin generates such complexity from simple beginnings; for me, this symbolises the idea of the universe. What emerges is something bigger than the sum of its parts.
Medtner Stimmungsbilder, Op. 1, ‘The Angel’
Unlike Scriabin, who evolved enormously as a composer, Medtner remained consistent in style from his first opus to this last. This piece, based on a poem by Lermontov, is the first one he ever wrote. It speaks of an angel flying across the sky, carrying a young soul in its arms. That may seem morbid, but the piece is incredibly serene, without a hint of sorrow. It’s like Mozart’s music, where you feel you can’t change a single note: a sublime take on a subject that others might see as painful and negative.
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Scriabin Prometheus, Poem of Fire
This work, which depicts fire as a symbol of the development of human consciousness, is full of mysticism. It’s the first piece, I think, ever to combine light with music, thanks to the inclusion of the colour organ: a new instrument that Scriabin invented for this piece, which emits coloured light instead of music. But what I find incredible are the harmonies – at once out of the ordinary and primordial, as though they have always been there, like the fabric of the universe. And the way that the choir blends harmonically when it comes in towards the end gives me goose bumps.
Medtner Fairy Tale, Op. 51 No 3
Medtner wrote a lot of musical fairy tales and, being part-German, he took inspiration from German folklore. I was sitting at Euston Square station, surrounded by people in suits on their way to work, when I heard this music. It immediately gripped me – there was something about the way Medtner used harmonies, rhythms and textures that was so imaginative but also so pianistic. I just had to sit down to listen to it properly and then listen to it many more times. It felt like being hit by magic.
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Debussy L’Isle Joyeuse
This piece, based on Jean-Antoine Watteau’s painting The Embarkation for Cythera, symbolises the quest to achieve eternal bliss: it is full of beautiful, watery textures in the piano and constant shifts in key, with an orgiastic climax towards the end, leaving you with the feeling that, after this experience, the whole island drowns and everybody on it either dies or transforms. There is the idea that you can die of ecstasy – Scriabin was obsessed with it, and I feel that Debussy was also tapping into it. This is probably his most exuberant and extravagant musical work.
Saint-Saëns Danse macabre
This piece by Saint-Saëns, in which the dead are summoned up from their graves, is the most literal depiction of death on my list. But what is striking is its whimsical, humorous quality. This idea that death comes to you, takes you by the hand and starts trying to get you to dance: it’s kind of ridiculous, almost making fun of death. Then everybody dances through the night, and the whole thing becomes crazy and convoluted, until the morning hours when the cockerel crows its famous tune. Although we often hear this piece in its orchestral version, it works brilliantly on the piano: you can hear the bones rattling.
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Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 9, ‘Black Mass’
This piece is also about summoning demons back to life. But whereas Danse macabre is ridiculous and humorous, this is very dark. Interestingly, around the time that the piece was written, devil worship, sadism, necrophilia, cannibalism and other strange ceremonies were thriving throughout Russia. For instance, the painter Nikolai Sperling, Scriabin’s favourite artist, drank human blood and ate human flesh to achieve mystical experiences. So, there was something in the air at the time and maybe some of it worked its way into this music – it is terrifying.
Who is Yevgeny Sudbin?
Brought up in Russia, pianist Yevgeny Sudbin moved to Berlin aged 10, and then to London at 17, graduating from the Royal Academy of Music. He made his BBC Proms debut in July 2008 and has since performed with orchestras all over the world. Widely considered to be an example of the Russian pianistic tradition – thanks to his vivid musical imagination and virtuosity – he is a champion of Scriabin and Medtner. His new recording of Scriabin’s piano works is out now on BIS.