Musical memories

There are late sonatas (Mozart's, Haydn's, Beethoven's) and then there is Schubert's very last sonata. Much has been written about the phenomenon of late works - that they are the artists' message to us from "the beyond". But at the age of 35 (Mozart) or 31 (Schubert) or even 56 (Ludwig van), how can you be anywhere but with your feet firmly planted on the planet - or on the pedals?  One thing is for sure, though: After you've written 17 (Mozart) or 61 (Haydn) or 31 (Beethoven) or 20 (Schubert), the next one is bound to profit from all that practice in writing, not only for that genre but for all the others, too.  Schubert's Sonata #21 in B-flat is so full of colors, textures and timbres that I feel he must have been inspired by the expressive power of other instruments as well. Of course, he was the best song writer of all time, so his gift for melody is apparent in this four-movement piano sonata.  I first became aware of it when I was given the...

Last night ( Jan. 19, 2019 ) Arcadi Volodos did not play Scriabin’s Fifth Piano Sonata as he had announced and as I had so desperately hoped. Instead, he finished the regular program with Vers la flamme , which is also a piece filled with passion and quite an orgasmic ending, but still…it doesn't have this poem accompanying it: ''I call you to life, O mysterious forces! Drowned in the obscure depths Of the creative spirit, timid Shadows of life, to you I bring daring.'' I first heard the Fifth in the summer of 1989. Scriabin was unknown to me until I attended the William Kapell Piano Competition in Maryland and heard several of the contestants play it. The eventual winner, Haesun Paik , played it in each of the three rounds. It is not every day that I fall in love with a piece of music after hearing it a half-dozen times, but this was an exception. I even drove up to New York to hear her play it in Avery Fisher Hall and then took a road trip to Chattanoog...