Scriabin: The Early Piano Works – Alessandro Riccardi

Scriabin was an excellent pianist and composer, and, under many aspects, an heir to Chopin’s school, as well as a visionary of the piano. He was able to impress, with a force similar to that of his Polish colleague, his own personal style in the history of music, by exploring untrodden territories and by creating such a unique poetics that it would remain practically unequalled after him. For his debut album, Alessandro Riccardo chooses to concentrate himself on the earliest works by this composer; on the one hand, they already display his depth and compositional accomplishment, and, on the other, they form the ground on which the Sonatas, the Preludes and the later Studies will be built. It is a kind of “Origin story”, symbolically closed by one of the composer’s most paradigmatic works, here in its premiere, i.e. the unfinished Ballad in B-flat minor Anh. 14, which already reveals how the young composer had reached his full maturity. This album has been enthusiastically received by both the Scriabin Foundation and by the composer’s direct descendant, Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin. This first fruit of this Italian pianist is thus destined to become a milestone in the history of the interpretation of Scriabin, marking, under some aspects, a break with the interpretations of the past while offering an entirely new gaze on them. This is a dazzling recording, not to be missed by all lovers of the piano and of its literature.