Scriabin: Sonata No.2 in G-sharp Minor (Trifonov, Melnikov, Pogorelich)

Scriabin’s second Sonata in G# Minor must rank as one of the most evocative ever written. The first movement features two of the most beautiful motifs ever conceived: the first, the brooding echo of a bell; and the second, a soaring melody placed in the middle of the texture, swathed with delicate latticework. Structurally, there are at least two features of the first movement worth noting: that every section (exposition, development, and recapitulation) begins with the same music, and that the movement ends in E Major, a colour which appeared to Scriabin bluish-white (Scriabin is perhaps the most famous classical composer to have synaesthesia).The second movement, a pulsating perpetuum mobile, contains within it a rising, aching melody which is never presented in its full form until its last occurrence near the end of the movement. It’s also interesting to note that Scriabin had a distinct imagistic programme for this sonata, which might explain the choice of E Major as the key in which the first mov