The year 2022 marks the 150th anniversary of Aleksandr Skrjabin's birth. Now he would create the impression of a questionable self-styled messiah, seeking to transform the entire cosmos with his ecstatic music. However, such elated ideas were quite normal in the era of symbolism. He was not as crazy as it seemed; his notes were certainly under Skrjabin's control. In Le Poème de l'Extase, the listener
… sways on the orchestral waves for some twenty minutes, only to be finally engulfed by a symphonic tsunami. Prométhée (for piano, chorus and orchestra) was only a finger exercise for the megalomaniacal Mysterium. Prométhée is thus that piece for which Skrjabin had in mind a kind of color organ, which was to flood the white-clad musicians and listeners with a mystical splash of color. About that unfinished Mysterium we need only speak for a moment. It was supposed to be a kind of worship service of seven days and nights in a specially built temple in the Himalayas. This was to transform all of humanity into.... Yes, into what actually? At least into something that transcends an ordinary concert. Because in addition to choir, soloists and orchestra, the plan also provided for dance, light, color, fragrance and heavenly chimes from the clouds. (HJ)more
