Friday, October 7, 2011

Tintinnabulation Inc or Russian music…




Alexander Scriabin's talent was a coupling of intellect and intuition and sometimes the two conflicted. The Russian composer created his Sixth Sonata in 1911 and it was one of the few works he never played in public, claiming the work was "nightmarish, murky, unclean and mischievous". A constant of his music, like all of the composer's work, was a fondness for bell rhythms and tonalities. If Scriabin's Seventh Sonata is composed of "heavenly bells" the sixth sonata is surely its hellish opposite.

Sergey Rachmaninoff, a friend of Scriabin, had a fascination with bells himself his most famous early work, the prelude in c-sharp minor is loaded with bell tolling and this continued in with his setting of Edgar Allan Poe's The Bells. On this Sunday's Piano program Rachmaninoff's most jingle-jangle jammed composition; the sonata in b-flat minor, the same key as Chopin's Funeral Sonata which as you might have guessed by now has tolling bells in it as well.

Have a ring-a-ding time with the Piano this Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC and KTXI.

host, Randy Anderson

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