Alexander Scriabin  

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Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (6 January 187227 April 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist who developed a highly lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language. Driven by a poetic, philosophical and aesthetic vision that bordered on the mystical, he can be considered the primary figure of Russian Symbolism in music.

His music has been performed by musicians such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Andrei Gavrilov, Ruth Laredo, Marc-André Hamelin, Evgeny Kissin, Claudio Arrau and Vladimir Ashkenazy. He also influenced composers like Olivier Messiaen, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky, although Scriabin was reported to have disliked Prokofiev's and Stravinsky's music.

Scriabin stands as one of the most innovative and most controversial of composers. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia said of Scriabin that, "No composer has had more scorn heaped or greater love bestowed..." Leo Tolstoy once described Scriabin's music as "a sincere expression of genius."

Scriabin was highly regarded during his lifetime and his music has resurged in popularity in the last few decades after suffering a period of decline in the middle of the 20th century. He has consistently remained a favorite composer among pianists.

He is the author of The Poem of Ecstasy.



Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Alexander Scriabin" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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