90 – Daniel Pereira – Scriabin: Complete Piano Preludes – TRAILER (ESP)

Despite influences ranging from Liszt and Chopin to late Romanticism to Wagner and Debussy, Scriabin stands alone in music history, a transcendental visionary who indulged in a heady array of styles, embracing polyrhythms, bitonality, even atonality. Scriabin’s compositions are amongst the most innovative, idiosyncratic and bewitching of all time, and his piano works are at the very heart of this contribution.

This exquisite double CD from pianist Daniel Pereira illustrates the extraordinary metamorphosis of Scriabin’s style over the course of a quarter of a century. In addition to performing these works with rare insight, Daniel Pereira has completed a doctoral thesis on the preludes of Scriabin, demonstrating an exceptionally detailed and informed approach to his music. Scriabin’s piano output reflected his own quest for the unimaginable, the esoteric, the mysterious, resulting in an opulent concoction of rich harmonies, accentuated or blurred with the subtle use of pedalling.
Each of Scriabin’s preludes is usually fixated on a single idea which is then varied and transformed. The brevity of these pieces often serves to accentuate their intensity of colour; the listener can appreciate them as though enjoying a collection of sparkling jewels, each one unique, complex and beautiful.
Daniel Pereira grew up and currently resides in Spain. His studies took him to the USA, where he undertook research at the International Piano Archives, and his career has taken him all over the world, including as Director of Chamber Music at the Vianden International Festival in Luxembourg.