The Scriabin Etude Op8 No12 may well be the best known and most loved of Scriabins works for the piano. It is youthful, vigorous, technically demanding piano music in the grand late Romantic style, written at a point in Scriabin's life when he and Rachmaninov were till headed in the same direction.
So as to set the stage, the first two interpretations of this piece are by Scriabin himself and Rachmaninov. This is one case where the composer's interpretation is without any doubt the best of all. Scriabin plays it very fast as, in my view, the forward motion of the music demands, and the etude is driven to its iresistable conclusion leaving the listener breathless.
There are several truly notable performance of this Scriabin Etude among the others. Simon Barere's interpretation, while not quite as intensely compelling as Scriabin's, is very convincing. And Alfred Cortot takes a tempo more like that of Rachmaninov, wonderfully played, and in lieu of the breakneck speed plays with an intensity that results in a similar effect. And Nikolai Lugansky plays it beautifully.
There are two by Horowitz, an earlier recording which, while not near the class of the above mentioned performances, is nonetheless better than the very disappointing later one.
Van Cliburn had recently won the Tchaikovsky Competition at the time of this was recorded. He has a big, powerful technique, but he too is reliant on the vertical structures of the piece which halts the impetus.
I find the Berezovsky performance quite satisfying. He does not have the level of passion that I like, but he plays the piece very well and does nothing to contradict the essence of its meaning.
Gavrylyuk, the youngest of the group, gives a very exciting reading of the etude, passionate, and with some very effective ritards after which the pace is immediately resumed.
Kissin and Lang Lang, wildly popular pianists that they are, are problematic for me. They both have tremendous techniques, sometimes put at the service of the music, sometimes not. In this piece, Kissin plays like he is trying to punish the piano, the composer, and the listener. It is an unsatisfying, harsh performance, full of ugly sounds, the result of pounding, simply put.
Lang Lang, on the other hand, does a very credible job with the music. His tendency is to play softer passages with a beautiful touch, drawing out, ala Horowitz, every nuance. Why? Because he can, I suppose. But this etude does not call for it. It is still a good performance, and Lang Lang has enviable technical capabilities.
ALEXANDER SCRIABIN Russian Pianist (1872-1915) Welte piano roll
SERGEI RACHMANINOV Russian-American Pianist (1873-1943)
NIKOLAI LUGANSKY Russian Pianist (b 1972) Recorded live in 2004
SIMON BARERE Russian-American Pianist (1896-1951)
ALFRED CORTOT French-Swiss Pianist (1877-1962) unidentified piano roll
VLADIMIR HOROWITZ Russian-American Pianist (1877-1962)
and somewhat later
DINORAH VARSI Uruguayan Pianist
VAN CLIBURN American Pianist (b.1934) Recorded in Moscow in 1960
