How I met Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin

How I met Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin

Red Square, Moscow (photo: © Mirna Rudan Lisak)

Bozo Kovacevic author

By Božo Kovačević

Graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy, former Member of Croatian Parliament, Minister in the Government of the Republic of Croatia and Ambassador to Moscow, lecturer at the Dag Hammarskjöld Graduate School, co-founder of “Gordogan”, author of three books and numerous publications, Telegram columnist, Honorary Member of the Croatian Society “Alexandar Scriabin”

Working as the Croatian Ambassador in Moscow, I learned that Scriabin Festival is held there and that there is the Scriabin Museum and Scriabin Fund. I soon came to the information that the co-organizer of the Scriabin Festival is one of the descendants of that famous Russian composer, Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin. I asked the secretary to invite that gentleman to a meeting at the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia. Thus, at the agreed time, a strong gentleman of fifty-something appeared at the Embassy. Striking on him was a short, well-groomed beard, already gray as his hair. At first he was quite reticent in anticipation of finding out why I had called him. I explained to him that I was interested in the development of cultural cooperation between the Republic of Croatia and the Russian Federation. As some of the Croatian musicians have Scriabin’s works in their repertoire, perhaps we could arrange for one of them to be a guest in Russia, which was to be organized by one of the associations that promote Scriabin’s work.

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Plate on the entrance to the Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin, Moscow

Sasha came to life. He readily provided details of plans and programs and suggested possible forms of cooperation with clearly defined commitments. He would take over the issue of obtaining an invitation, providing a performance hall and a rehearsal piano, as well as printing posters and program leaflets, and the Embassy was to provide financial assistance and accommodation for the contractor. We have very precisely agreed on the deadlines within which each of the planned tasks should be performed. As I knew for sure that Croatian pianist Veljko Glodić also had Scriabin’s works in his repertoire, I suggested that he be the first artist we would invite within the framework of such a collaboration. However, due to certain prejudices about Russians as not very business-oriented people, and due to sporadic experiences that confirmed such prejudices, it seemed unlikely that everything that Sasha and I agreed would be realized as planned. But I was wrong. Sasha proved to be a reliable man, a skilled organizer and manager, and a man of his word.

„Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin and his wife Ana Yuryevna Scriabina are true friends, dear people and recognized experts in the cultural life of Russia. The founding of the Croatian Society “Alexander Scriabin” is largely achieved thanks to their efforts as well.“

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Thus began our cooperation, but also our precious friendship that marked not only my ambassadorial mandate in Moscow but also the many years that followed my return. Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin and his wife Ana Yuryevna Scriabina are true friends, dear people and recognized experts in the cultural life of Russia. The founding of the Croatian Society “Alexander Scriabin” is largely achieved thanks to their efforts as well.

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Valery Kastelsky and Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 7

Valery Kastelsky and Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 7

Alexander Scriabin playing the piano (photo: © Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin, Moscow)

Ruben Dalibaltayan author

By Prof. Ruben Dalibaltayan

Pianist, full-time Professor at the Academy of Music, University of Zagreb, Guest Professor at the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein and at the “Talent Music Master Courses” in Brescia, first President of the Croatian Society “Alexander Scriabin”

Valery Kastelsky was one of the greatest Russian pianists and pedagogues of the second half of the 20th century. He studied in Moscow with the legendary Soviet pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus and was awarded at three major piano competitions: Chopin’s in Warsaw (1960), Long Thibaud in Paris (1963) and the ARD competition in Munich (1967). He is known for his nobility, spirituality, charm and deep and thoughtful performances. From 1992 to 2001, he was the Vice President of the Alexander Scriabin Foundation in Russia (from 1992 until today, the President of the Foundation is Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, who is also the Honorary President of the Croatian Society “Alexander Scriabin”). As he was one of the last and dearest students of the great Neuhaus, his professor said of him: “Valery Kastelsky is one of my most interesting and favourite students. He knows how to get the audience to listen to music carefully. There is something very individual in his talent. I believe that his distinctive talent will still mature and that the general public will recognize it very soon.”

I was fortunate to be one of the many Professor Kastelsky’s students, and my collaboration with him began in 1997 when I enrolled in the Graduate School at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and it lasted until the year 2000. My memories of him are extremely beautiful both from the professional and from the human point of view. Regardless of the fact that in his young age he won awards at the world’s most famous piano competitions, he was not a “competitive” type, neither according to recordings from those days nor according to pedagogical principles. Being an extremely poetic but also introverted person, he never liked excessively fast tempi and external effects. The content and core of music have always been the focus of his attention. Absolute respect for the composer’s text was mandatory! Also, impeccable pianistic mastery of matter was something that had to be achieved without discussion. But one of the most important components of his pedagogy was working on sound. The nobility and dignity of tone were constant themes of our classes. He never tolerated, and he reacted very sharply to the harsh sound. Even in the greatest forte dynamics he sought the beauty and aristocracy of sound.

Valery Kastelsky plays Scriabin in 1985; Valery Babyatinsky recites poems

Another important component of Kastelsky’s pedagogy was the sense of time. In the first year of my studies, the Professor organized a class concert dedicated to Scriabin. All 10 of his piano sonatas were to be performed during that concert, and I was to learn the 7th sonata. It is a very difficult composition with extremely complicated polyrhythm and polyphony. When I started reading and analyzing the text, I realized that this constant polyrhythm creates a special, magical effect of improvisation and that it can sound quite free and flexible. When I approached it that way, it became much easier to play the sonata. After a few days I happily went to class with the Professor expecting all the praise. But to my regret, the Professor took a pen in his hand right from the beginning of the composition and diligently acted out the metronome to its very end. Playing that sonata accompanied by Professor’s pen was a great torment. All my beautiful ideas about improvisation, flexibility and free treatment of time were destroyed. The same scenario was repeated during the next class . The Professor was absolutely steadfast! Still, after 3-4 hours I started to feel that I was no longer bothered by Professor’s pen, that I could function, feel good and play without rubbing. I realized that this music is wonderful in its organized course. The Professor probably sensed the changes that had taken place and reacted immediately: “Now you can play rubato as much as you want.”

“Valery Kastelsky was one of the great representatives of the Soviet piano school of the second half of the 20th century. At the same time he was a modest and approachable person, an artist who remained in my memory an example of what a true pedagogue should be.”

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This great pedagogue, on the example of only one sonata, revealed to me a fundamentally important musical truth: in order to perform rubato well, it must first be possible to play the composition strictly in tempo. Later I went through something similar in Schumann’s Fantasy Op. 17 and in Schubert’s Wanderer fantasy. That chronology has always had to exist. This is why I often point out that Valery Kastelsky was one of the great representatives of the Soviet piano school of the second half of the 20th century. At the same time he was a modest and approachable person, an artist who in my memory remained an example of what a true pedagogue should be.

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Travelogue: Conference in Moscow (2)

Travelogue: Conference in Moscow (Part 2)

Mirna Rudan Lisak author

By Mirna Rudan Lisak, PhD

Trip to Moscow to attend a conference organized to mark the 100th anniversary of establishing the Scriabin Museum

It is New Year’s Eve and it is the last moment to say goodbye—can it be done better than by remembering the highlights of 2018? Of course, for me it was the participation in a conference organized to mark the 100th anniversary of founding the Memorial Museum of Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, the famous Russian composer and pianist. Since I devoted to his mystic chord the entire first chapter of my book Abstract Reproductive as Productive Art: Chromatic fantasies of the Composer Alexander Scriabin, Painter Alexej Jawlensky and Pianist Ivo Pogorelich, the Scriabin Museum has invited me to Moscow to present the results of my work, and to listen to what other artists and researchers have to say about Scriabin’s art. The title of the chapter is Alexander Scriabin’s Mystic Chord as a Marionette by Heinrich von Kleist, because in the mystic chord I discerned a figure in motion that comes to life the moment Scriabin, like a puppeteer, from the center of his spiritual creation, manages the world of sounds.

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Walking around Moscow at night is a wonderful experience due to the unusual warmth radiated by this often freezing city

Vers la flamme like the flaming form of Saint Basil’s Cathedral

After visiting Moscow, it seems to me that the mobility of the mystic chord, besides in the urban structure of this city, may even more likely have its origin in the blazing form of Saint Basil’s Cathedral. Thus, the decision to project fire during my elaboration of Scriabin’s composition Vers la flamme (Toward the Flame) and Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, in this context, also proved to be appropriate. Obviously, neither Stravinsky was far from the same idea when he composed his world-known masterpiece Firebird. It seems to me that in this picturesque church many Russian artists found a spiritual drive for their artistic concepts, and as it is located at the very origin of Moscow, I cannot escape the impression that it is precisely this church that is the eternal hearth of all Russians, having the power to thaw even the coldest hearts during the endless winter nights. However, I noticed the greatest interest of the audience when I presented the last picture—Sir James Fraser’s spiral illusion, and only now I realize that long before my trip to Moscow, by choosing this pictorial example, I had anticipated my future experience of the rhythm, harmony and melody of the city in which numerous Russian artists had been creating their greatest works (read more in Part 1 of this travelogue).

“During the conference it was wonderful to exchange opinions with numerous Scriabinist artists and researchers, staff of the Scriabin Museum and professors from the Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories.”

New acquaintances and friendships

Let’s get back to the conference—it was wonderful to exchange ideas with the museum staff and professors from Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories. On top of that, the place in the conference schedule reserved for my lecture was indeed a great honour: on the second day, the first lecture was given by Mo. Atanas Kurtev—Fellow of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and world-known pianist who teaches at numerous francophone European Conservatories. After his lecture, I was the one to present my work on the mystic chord, and then the podium was reserved for Mr. Alexander Serafimovich Scriabin, PhD—descendant of the Scriabin family, a President of the Scriabin Fund in Moscow, and an Honorary President of the UK-based Scriabin Association. As I do not speak Russian, I prepared my lecture in English and sent the text to the Scriabin Museum, so that colleague Areg Mekhakyan, who—in addition to preparing an extremely interesting lecture on the connection between Scriabin’s music and Eastern philosophy—was kind to translate it into Russian to be able to simultaneously read part by part during my presentation. This is why everyone expected me to speak English, not knowing that, as an expression of respect and gratitude, I prepared the first few sentences in fluent Russian (I practiced proper accents for a week). I will never forget the spontaneous smile of the audience as a reaction to that surprise. Everyone was very friendly during the conference: Mr. Vladimir Popkov, the Head of the Scientific Research Department, made sure that everything developed smoothly from the first invitation letter until the departure from Moscow, and one of the most fascinating people I had a chance to meet was Mrs. Valentina Vassilyevna Rubtsova, the Editor-in-Chief of the famous publishing house and magazine Music.

Everything is ready for the beginning of the conference

A. Kurtev, N. Kurtev and A. S. Scriabin—Scriabin’s Descendant

Maestro Kurtev and me during the break

Areg Mekhakyan and me taking care of the last details

I present my book below the picture of my favorite composer

Talking about Scriabin’s longing for cosmic perfection

Architecture as dialectical opposite to Scriabin’s dynamic structures

Discussing the analogy of mystic chord
and Kleist’s marionette

Analogy between the body in motion and flame

Spiral illusion by Sir James Fraser showing analogy between the end and the beginning

Plaster cast of Scriabin’s hands in the multimedia section of the museum

The multimedia space of the museum

Before departure one more walk along Arbat Street

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Real life stories are often like fairytales

Every story that resembles a fairytale always has an unexpected epilogue, thus this one is no different. When I returned to Zagreb, colleagues from the Scriabin Museum contacted me to inform me that on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of establishing the Museum they would like to publish my entire essay on the mystic chord in Russian! Since translating into a foreign language is the greatest dream of all authors, I immediately started working. Eighty pages urgently needed to be translated into English so that the Museum would have enough time to translate it into Russian and publish it next year. The indication that the New Year could be as good as the past one was the best possible ending of 2018, so in Scriabin’s spirit I wish you to fulfill all of your chromatic fantasies and all the best in 2019!

“Translation into a foreign language is every author’s dream.”

Blog-Moscow-2-Fairytale

“Translation into a foreign language is every author’s dream.”

Real life stories are often like fairytales

Every story that resembles a fairytale always has an unexpected epilogue, thus this one is no different. When I returned to Zagreb, colleagues from the Scriabin Museum contacted me to inform me that on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of establishing the Museum they would like to publish my entire essay on the mystic chord in Russian! Since translating into a foreign language is the greatest dream of all authors, I immediately started working. Eighty pages urgently needed to be translated into English so that the Museum would have enough time to translate it into Russian and publish it next year. The indication that the New Year could be as good as the past one was the best possible ending of 2018, so in Scriabin’s spirit I wish you to fulfill all of your chromatic fantasies and all the best in 2019!

You may also like our other publications…

Travelogue: Conference in Moscow (1)

Travelogue: Conference in Moscow (Part 1)

Red Square, Moscow (photo: © Mirna Rudan Lisak)

Mirna Rudan Lisak author

By Mirna Rudan Lisak, PhD

Trip to Moscow to attend a conference organized to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Scriabin Museum

It is October and I am finally in Moscow, a city that I have always wanted to visit, because this is where my favorite composer, Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, lived and worked (Moscow, January 6, 1872—Moscow, April 27, 1915). His apartment is located right next to Arbat Street, which is described in numerous Russian literary works, and since Bulgakov in his mystical novel The Master and Margarita even evoked a flight over it, I decided that the chosen hotel would have to be in it, or at least in the nearest possible neighborhood (I still hoped that, unlike the poet Homeless and editor Berlioz, I would avoid a sudden encounter with the devil). Realizing that the hotel I liked was located in Composer’s Street, there was no longer any doubt about where to stay, and the Google Maps showed that Scriabin’s and Pushkin’s museums were only a two- or three-minute walk away.

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The famous Arbat Street, where the main protagonists of numerous Russian literary works spent unforgettable moments

Synesthesia-based interdisciplinary approach to music

The building in which Scriabin lived has been completely transformed into his Memorial Museum. On the ground floor there is a hall for chamber concerts, exhibitions, lectures, etc., while on the first floor one can enjoy the original preserved Scriabin’s apartment and his Bechstein piano, which was later played by numerous famous pianists (Sofronitsky, Neuhaus, Horowitz, Van Cliburn, Pletnev, etc.). The adjacent building has also recently been refurbished to create a bigger concert hall (one has to pass the courtyard to get there), and it is worth mentioning that the hall is enriched with light effects, reminding me that Scriabin was a visionary far ahead of his time, laying the foundations of the modern light-show. It is commonly believed that Scriabin, influenced by synaesthesia—a phenomenon characterised by the interaction of the senses, became aware that each musical tonality corresponds to a certain colour. Following this idea, in his famous composition Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, he composed a section for light organ to translate musical harmonies into color structures (more on the matter in my book Abstract Reproductive as Productive Art). Consequently, his colour system, grounded in Newton’s optics, is in harmony with the circle of quints (a five tone span), which is demonstrated on a light device from the early 20th century (see the picture with colorful light bulbs).

“Scriabin's flexible melody structures, rich in chromatics and thus challenging for the performer's memory, may have its origins in the urban structure of his city.”

Moscow as a huge Fibonacci spiral

This trip once again confirmed that it is highly desirable to travel to the city where an artist lived and worked. Just like in Prague, where it becomes clear that Kafka’s The Metamorphosis could not have been written anywhere else, in Moscow it becomes clear that Scriabin’s flexible melody structures, rich in chromatics and thus challenging for the performer’s memory, may have its origins in the urban structure of his city. It was really difficult to develop a sense of space, i.e. to determine the north and the south; in fact, in Moscow it is almost impossible to orient at first. Therefore, if I had to describe Moscow in one word, it would be the word “maelstrom.” The moment you immerse yourself in the spirit and essence of this city, you feel that—not even knowing how—you have suddenly found yourself in a huge Fibonacci spiral, and in that particular moment the only thing you can do is to close circle by circle step by step, in the rhythm of Shostakovich’s Waltz No. 2, until you reach the very point of its origin, where you suddenly get overwhelmed with the shine of the flaming and picturesque beauty of Saint Basil’s Cathedral. It must be that Ivan the Terrible was not so terrible after all, leaving such a fabulous building behind. Nevertheless, the moment you reluctantly decide to leave, you realize that Shostakovich’s elegant waltz has turned into Khachaturian’s fateful three-fourths tact, and in this masked acceleration, to me it is still not clear how, after Red Square, I found myself in front of the Bolshoi Theater because I was sure it was on the opposite side.

Entrance to the Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin

The hall on the ground floor of the Scriabin Museum

Staircase leading to Scriabin’s first floor apartment

Scriabin’s famous Bechstein

Scriabin’s colour system taking as base the Optics of Isaac Newton and circle of quints

This is how it looks when the light bulbs are on

On the left side of the closet is a small cabinet with a tail coat and white gloves

Another Scriabin’s piano and his picture above

Living room

Plaster cast of Scriabin’s hands

Scriabin’s bedroom

The courtyard leading to the concert hall

Climbing to the gallery

Concert Hall—gallery view

Concert hall under the glow of light effects

Walk to Red Square—on the left the statue of General Zhukov, who defeated Hitler

The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed peers out the opposite side of Red Square

In front of Saint Basil’s Cathedral

The Red Square dimensions are perfect for claustrophobic people

The fairy-tale interior of St. Basil’s Cathedral

At the top of the dome a spiral analogy with the urban structure of Moscow

A little more of the fairy-tale interior of the cathedral

View from the first floor of the cathedral

Impressive building of the Bolshoi Theater

Giselle on the repertoire

View from the Bolshoi Theater towards Red Square

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Transience of fame

The story is already too long for today, and the goal was not to document every single detail of the trip (much less in chronological order), but to convey a breath of atmosphere, and inspire other people to travel to Moscow and get acquainted with the character and work of this artist, known for unusual destiny because just a few were so famous like Scriabin during their lifetimes, and so quickly forgotten after death.

“This trip once again confirmed that it is highly desirable to travel to the city where researched artist has lived and worked.”

Blog Moscow  Aerodrom

“This trip once again confirmed that it is highly desirable to travel to the city where researched artist has lived and worked.”

Transience of fame

The story is already too long for today, and the goal was not to document every single detail of the trip (much less in chronological order), but to convey a breath of atmosphere, and inspire other people to travel to Moscow and get acquainted with the character and work of this artist, known for unusual destiny because just a few were so famous like Scriabin during their lifetimes, and so quickly forgotten after death.

You may also like our other publications…

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