Vadym Kholodenko – Scriabin: Preludes, Etudes & Sonatas Nos. 4 & 5 (2018) [FLAC 24bit/88,2kHz]

It’s on a big Fazioli piano, recorded in a public concert in 2017, that Vadym Kholodenko – gold medallist at the prestigious Van Cliburn Competiton – offers us a journey through the fascinating, sometimes unsettling, always vivid, world of Scriabin. The programme follows the compositions in chronological order: we start with some harmonically almost “well-behaved” works, which still bear the marks of Chopin and Rachmaninov, moving gradually towards total liberation from any audible tonality in the form of Vers la flamme from 1914 – one of Scriabin’s last pieces – a hair-raising firework display on the piano in the form of an inexorable, almost orgasmic, crescendo. Between these two poles, Kholodenko offers several series of Preludes and Études, two Sonatas – the 4th from 1903 and the 5th from 1907, representing the transition in the composer’s style – and isolated piece with evocative titles such as the Poème tragiqueand the Poème satanique. It’s a fine journey, at the end of which the listener will feel both full and emptied-out!

Tracklist:
1. Six Preludes, Op. 13: No. 1. Maestoso, in C Major 03:15
2. Six Preludes, Op. 13: No. 2. Allegro 00:48
3. Six Preludes, Op. 13: No. 3. Andante, in G Major 01:10
4. Six Preludes, Op. 13: No. 4. Allegro, in E Minor 01:02
5. Six Preludes, Op. 13: No. 5. Allegro, in D Major 01:22
6. Six Preludes, Op. 13: No. 6. Presto, in B Minor 01:34
7. Five Preludes, Op. 16: No. 1. Andante in B Major 02:45
8. Five Preludes, Op. 16: No. 2. Allegro in G-Sharp Minor 01:15
9. Five Preludes, Op. 16: No. 3. Andante cantabile, in G-Flat Major 02:34
10. Five Preludes, Op. 16: No. 4. Lento, in E-Flat Minor 01:10
11. Five Preludes, Op. 16: No. 5. Allegretto, in F-Sharp Major 00:41
12. Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 30: I. Andante 03:17
13. Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 30: II. Prestissimo volando 05:13
14. Poème tragique in B-Flat Major, Op. 34 03:55
15. Poème satanique in C Major, Op. 36 06:00
16. Eight Etudes, Op. 42: No. 1. Presto, in D-Flat Major 01:57
17. Eight Etudes, Op. 42: No. 2. in F-Sharp Minor 01:19
18. Eight Etudes, Op. 42: No. 3. Prestissimo, in F-Sharp Major 01:03
19. Eight Etudes, Op. 42: No. 4. Andante, in F-Sharp Major 02:50
20. Eight Etudes, Op. 42: No. 5. Affanato, in C-Sharp Minor 02:57
21. Eight Etudes, Op. 42: No. 6. Esaltato, in D-Flat Major 02:17
22. Eight Etudes, Op. 42: No. 7. Agitato, in F Minor 01:05
23. Eight Etudes, Op. 42: No. 8. Allegro, in E-Flat Major 02:26
24. Sonata No. 5 in F-Sharp Major, Op. 53 13:30
25. Vers la flamme, Op. 72 06:22