Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin ( December 25, 1871 ( January 6, 1872 ), Moscow , Russian Empire  - April 14 (27),  1915 , ibid) - Russian composer and pianist , teacher , representative of symbolism in music.  

He was the first to use color in the performance of music, thereby introducing the concept of " light music ".

Biography 

 

Outbuilding of the Lopukhins - Volkonsky - Kiryakovs estate , in which A. N. Scriabin was born. Corner of Khitrovskaya Square and Khitrovsky Lane . ser. 18th century - early XIX century) - Main house - apartment building (mid-18th century, 1878, 1900) Cultural heritage site of federal significance (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 624 of 04.12.1974) Cultural heritage site No. 7710935001 

Scriabin was born into the family of a student at Moscow University , who later became a prominent diplomat, a real state councilor, Nikolai Alexandrovich Skryabin (1849-1915)  in the house of the Kiryakovs' city estate .

He was baptized in the Church of the Three Hierarchs in Kulishki . In the Central State Historical Archive of the city of Moscow, “the parish book given from the Moscow Spiritual Consistory of Ivanovsky Soroka to the Three Saints Church on Kulishki” is stored, in which the birth of the future composer was recorded.

The noble family of the Scriabins was not ancient and rich. The composer's great-grandfather - Ivan Alekseevich Skryabin (born in 1775) - came "from the soldiers' children of the city of Tula "; for bravery in the battle near Friedland he was awarded the insignia of the military order of St. George and a cross for the lower ranks; having received the rank of second lieutenant in 1809 , ten years later, together with his son Alexander, he is included in the genealogical book of the nobles of the St. Petersburg province ; the composer's grandfather - Alexander Ivanovich - according to the rank of lieutenant colonel, was entered in 1858 in the second part of the genealogical book of the nobility of the Moscow province.

The composer's mother Lyubov Petrovna (nee Shchetinina) (1848-1873) was a talented pianist who graduated with honors from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the class of Theodor Leshetitsky.

Everywhere it is noted that she successfully began her concert activity, which, unfortunately, was very short.

N. D. Kashkin recalled: “ From further conversations with the cadet, I learned that his mother, nee Shchetinina, graduated from the course at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. This immediately reminded me that Laroche and Tchaikovsky both spoke to me of Shchetinina, who was at the conservatory at the same time as them, as the most talented pianist of the Leshetitsky class, who, however, could not achieve brilliant virtuosity, due to her physical weakness and sickness. Shchetinina completed the course, probably in 1867, soon married and died following the birth of her son […]. Recently, after the death of Scriabin, I heard from E. A. Lavrovskayathat she was friends with Shchetinina at the conservatory and that the latter was very attractive in her personal qualities, regardless of her musical talent ".

In the autumn of 1870, L.P. Scriabina made a tour, in which she successfully performed together with the singer A.A. Khvostova. The name of this singer is closely connected with the names of P. I. Tchaikovsky and A. N. Apukhtin . They have been in the Khvostovs' house since the 1850s. The mother of the family, Ekaterina Alexandrovna Khvostova, a woman of rare intelligence and education, was famous for her friendship in her youth with M. Yu. Lermontov .

A. A. Khvostova later studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory together with Tchaikovsky and L. P. Shchetinina (she graduated in 1866).
It is noteworthy that reviews of Khvostova as a singer, musician and person were left by V.V. Stasov and A.P. Borodin , and they date back to the time of her joint performances with L.P. Shchetinina. It is also curious that the Khvostov family lived in the same house with the sister of M. I. Glinka, L. I. Shestakova. It is also known that A. A. Khvostova was closely associated with the composers of The Mighty Handful . She helped M. A. Balakirev in the concerts of the Free Music School , as well as in other activities.

By the time of the concert tours of L. P. Shchetinina and A. A. Khvostova, Tchaikovsky composed his first cycle of romances, op. 6, which includes the well-known romance "No, only the one who knew ..." to the verses of Lev Mey from I. V. Goethe . It was dedicated to the composer A. A. Khvostova. The romances were published in March 1870. At the same time, the romance "No, only the one who knew ..." was first sung by E. A. Lavrovskaya , as already mentioned, also a fellow student of Tchaikovsky and Shchetinina. But A. A. Khvostova asked the composer to send her notes, and she sang it, possibly accompanied by L. P. Shchetinina, with whom she performed a lot in 1870

Thus, Scriabin's mother, who was destined to become a great reformer and reformer of Russian music at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, was closely connected with the circle of Russian musicians, her son's predecessors, who to some extent surrounded him in his youth, when his personality and musical affections.

5 days before the birth of her son, on December 20, 1871, according to the old style, Lyubov Petrovna gave a concert in Saratov and immediately left for Moscow for the Christmas holidays.

“ She felt so bad that she had to be brought upstairs almost in her arms, and two hours after her arrival, Shurinka was born ,” recalled Lyubov Alexandrovna Skryabina, sister of Nikolai Alexandrovich.

 

Young Alexander Scriabin (late 1870s)

Lyubov Petrovna, at the age of 25, suddenly died of consumption a year after the birth of her son, while being treated in Tyrol . In 1913, Scriabin, being with his father in Lausanne , visited with him the grave of his mother. A photograph of the grave is kept in his archive.

Upon graduation, in the spring of 1878, Nikolai Alexandrovich was appointed to serve in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the end of that year was already assigned to the embassy in Constantinople . Little Shurinka remained in the care and upbringing of his grandmother, his father's mother, Elizaveta Ivanovna (nee Podchertkova, who had an estate in the Borovichi district of the Novgorod province ) , her sister Maria Ivanovna Podchertkova, who became his godmother, and his grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel of Artillery Alexander Ivanovich Skryabin (1811-1879) . The father's sister, Lyubov Alexandrovna, also devoted herself to raising the boy, leaving memories of her nephew's childhood full of enthusiastic love. His own uncles (all military) also took part in the upbringing of the young composer.

After the early, untimely death of his wife, Nikolai Aleksandrovich was married for the second time to an Italian citizen, Olga Ilyinichna Fernandez. They had five children: Nikolai, Vladimir, Xenia, Andrey, Kirill.

According to the widespread point of view, being constantly abroad and not taking part in the upbringing of his son, the father was very distant from him and did not perceive either the son himself, let alone his creative quest. However, the partially published correspondence between the father and son of the Scriabins completely refutes all these myths: the letters are filled with warmth, love and, most importantly, a sense of mutual understanding and respect of the father for the art and talent of his son. A. N. Scriabin himself lived in Lausanne, but earlier, in 1907-1908, but then he visited his father at the place of service. Their last, apparently, meeting took place in Lausanne in the autumn of 1913.

Although Scriabin lost his mother so early, her musical and artistic fate was in some way reflected in the process of the formation of his musical talent. So, L. A. Scriabina wrote in her memoirs that A. G. Rubinshtein “ was at one time the teacher of A. N.’s mother when she was at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He loved her very much and called her his daughter. When he learned that she had died and that Shurinka was her son, he treated him with great interest. Rubinstein was amazed at Sasha's musical talent and asked me not to force him to either play or compose when he had no desire ." It is also noteworthy that all contemporaries noted the remarkable performance of the works of Liszt and Chopin
by L.P. Scriabina. These same composers later became Scriabin's musical idols.

Already at the age of five, Scriabin knew how to play the piano , later he showed interest in composition, however, according to family tradition (the Scriabin family gained fame from the beginning of the 19th century and consisted of a large number of military ) was sent to the 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps , from which he graduated in 1889. Deciding to devote himself to music, Scriabin began taking private lessons from Georgy Eduardovich Konyus , then from Nikolai Sergeevich Zverev (piano; at the same time as the young S.V. Rachmaninov ) and Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (music theory).

Studying in the last year of the cadet corps, Scriabin entered the Moscow Conservatory in the piano classes of Vasily Ilyich Safonov and the composition of Anton Stepanovich Arensky . Classes with Arensky did not bring results, and in 1891 Scriabin was expelled from the composition class for poor progress, nevertheless, he brilliantly completed the piano course a year later with a small gold medal ( Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov , who graduated from the conservatory in the same year, received a large medal, as he also passed the course of composition with honors).

 

Alexander Scriabin, 1905

After graduating from the conservatory, Scriabin wanted a career as a concert pianist for himself, but in 1891 he outplayed his right hand and for some time could not perform. In August 1897, in the Varvara Church in Nizhny Novgorod, Scriabin married a young talented pianist Vera Ivanovna Isakovich. Having restored the working capacity of his hand, Scriabin and his wife went abroad, where he earned a living by performing his own compositions.

The Scriabins returned to Russia in 1898, in July of the same year their first daughter, Rimma, was born (she would die at the age of seven). In 1900, a daughter, Elena, was born, who would later become the wife of the outstanding Soviet pianist Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky . Later, a daughter Maria (1901) and a son Leo (1902) appeared in the family of Alexander Nikolayevich and Vera Ivanovna.

In September 1898, Scriabin was invited to the post of professor at the Moscow Conservatory , and in 1901-1902 he also taught at the Women's Catherine's Institute . However, in 1903 he left teaching, as it greatly distracted him from his own work.

In 1906-1907. performed in the USA with concerts organized by V. I. Safonov , which made a great impression on the American musical community.

 

Scriabin (sitting at the left at the table) as a guest at the house of Vladimir Metzl in Berlin, 1910

At the end of 1902, Scriabin met his second wife (they were not officially painted) Tatyana Fedorovna Schlozer , niece of Paul de Schlozer , a professor at the Moscow Conservatory (whose class the composer's official wife also studied).

Until 1910, Scriabin again spent more time abroad (mainly in France , later in Brussels , where he lived at 45 rue de la Réforme ), performing as a pianist. Returning to Moscow, the composer continues his concert activity, without ceasing to compose. Scriabin's last concert took place on April 2/15, 1915 in the Small Hall of the Petrograd Conservatory.

Scriabin died of sepsis resulting from a carbuncle on his upper lip. He was buried on April 29 with a large gathering of people at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. At his funeral, his teacher S. I. Taneyev caught a cold and soon died .

 

Scriabin's grave at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow

In recent years, he lived with his civilian family in Moscow at Bolshoy Nikolopeskovsky lane , 11. In this house on October 10, 1918, a memorial museum was established on the initiative of Tatyana Fedorovna Shlozer; with the help of Alexander Goldenweiser and Anatoly Lunacharsky, she managed to obtain a safe-conduct, which forbade the local authorities to make a communal apartment out of his dwelling. In 1922, the Scriabin Museum was officially opened to visitors and to this day operates as the Memorial Museum of A. N. Scriabin . Maria Veniaminovna Yudina recalled the return to Moscow on March 9, 1942 of Sofronitsky , who was rescued from besieged Leningrad :

The memorial museum of A. N. Scriabin still remained in Moscow as a living creative organism; it was not only a memorial; in this most difficult time, a lively hot life glimmered in it, on Vakhtangov Street, 11. In addition, there were annual evenings in memory of Boleslav Leopoldovich Yavorsky. November 26th is a memorable for everyone, the saddest date of the death of this huge, unique, all-encompassing, brilliant figure, reformer (fantastic - and partly fanatical, perhaps, as it should be for a reformer: "Hier stehe ich und kann nicht ander's!" (Martin Luther). The deceased professor of psychology and pedagogy Ivan Ivanovich Lyubimov, a close friend of Yavorsky, also labored verbally at these evenings. And we all who were alive and active. Boleslav Leopoldovich died in Saratov, where the evacuated Moscow Conservatory was located and where he spent his the last Bach seminar - at the desk, suddenly, having only 62 years of age.

The merits of the active and fruitful life of the Skryabin Museum belong to the director of the museum (student of Boleslav Leopoldovich)-Tatyana Grigoryevna Shaborkina, her sister-accompanist Anastasia Grigoryevna Shaborkina, Maria Aleksandrovna Skryabina-Tatarinova, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Krasheninnikova, Irina Ivanovna Sofronitsky, that is, the wife of Sofronytsky. to Vladimir Vladimirovich later, Alexander Vladimirovich.

These people were truly in love with their work, with their museum, they worshiped Scriabin, Sofronitsky, and partly Yavorsky. They keep his archive. Sofronitsky played and loved to play a lot there, a lot. These are true ascetics, immensely hardworking and humble. We are very different in some things, but this is not so important How not to love, not appreciate people who are disinterested, convinced, knowledgeable, sacrificial?? .. Thank them!

Family 

Alexander Nikolaevich had seven children in total: four from his first marriage (Rimma, Elena, Maria and Lev) and three from his second ( Ariadna , Julian and Marina ). Of these, three died in childhood, far from reaching adulthood. In the first marriage (with the famous pianist Vera Isakovich ), out of four children (three daughters and one son), two died at an early age. The first (being seven years old) died the eldest daughter of the Scriabins - Rimma (1898-1905)  - this happened in Switzerland , in the holiday village of Vezna near Geneva , where Vera Scriabin lived with her children. Rimma diedJuly 15 , 1905 in the cantonal hospital for intestinal volvulus.

 

Scriabin with Tatyana Schlozer , 1909

By that time, Scriabin himself lived in the Italian town of Bogliasco  - already with Tatyana Shlozer , his future second wife. “Rimma was Scriabin's favorite and her death deeply shocked him. He came to the funeral and sobbed bitterly over her grave. <...> This was the last meeting of Alexander Nikolaevich with Vera Ivanovna ” .

Scriabin's eldest son, Lev, was the last child from his first marriage, he was born in Moscow on August 18/31, 1902. Just like Rimma Scriabina, he died at the age of seven (March 16, 1910) and was buried in Moscow at the cemetery of the Joy of All Who Sorrow Monastery (Sorrowful Monastery) on Novoslobodskaya Street (currently the monastery does not exist). Of the two (long-awaited) sons of Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin, only one remained alive at that time, Julian.

 

Ariadna Scriabina

 

Children of A. N. Scriabin: Julian , Marina , Ariadne

Ariadna Scriabina married the poet Dovid Knut in her third marriage , after which she converted to Judaism . Together with her husband, she participated in the resistance movement in France , was hunted down in a safe house by the Vichy police in Toulouse during a mission to transport refugees to Switzerland , and on July 22, 1944, she died in a shootout while trying to detain . In Toulouse, a monument was erected to her , and on the house where A. Scriabina died, members of the Zionist Youth Movement of Toulouse erected a memorial plaque with the inscription:"In memory of Regina - Ariadna Fixman, who heroically fell at the hands of the enemy on July 22, 1944, defending the Jewish people and our homeland, the Land of Israel " .

The composer's son Yulian Scriabin , who died at the age of 11, was himself a composer, whose works are performed to this day.

The half-sister of Alexander Nikolaevich Ksenia Nikolaevna was married to Boris Eduardovich Bloom. Court adviser B. E. Bloom then served in a mission in Bukhara, and in 1914 he was listed as vice consul in Colombo on the island of Ceylon, where he was “seconded to strengthen the personnel of the political agency,” although he did not travel to the island. On June 19, 1914, their son Andrei Borisovich Bloom was born in Lausanne, who, under the monastic name Anthony ( 1914 - 2003 ), would later become a famous preacher and missionary. The great-nephew of the composer, Alexander Serafimovich Skryabin, in 1992 created the A.N. Scriabin to talk about the work of the great ancestor.

Creativity 

Scriabin's work stands on the border between the late Romantic tradition, in line with which his contemporaries admired him, and the search for the musical avant-garde, who later identified Scriabin as one of their heralds. According to the composer Sergei Nevsky , "Scriabin's music was truly heard and analytically appreciated by European composers only in the mid-70s of the XX century", when they learned "to see in it not only and not so much an affect as order, paradoxical logic and mathematical proportion of parts and the whole”.

Nervousness, impulsiveness, anxious searches, not alien to mysticism , are clearly felt in Scriabin's music. From the point of view of composing technique, Scriabin's music is close to the work of composers of the New Vienna School ( Schoenberg , Berg and Webern ), but it is solved from a different perspective - through the complication of harmonic means within the limits of tonality . At the same time, the form in his music is almost always clear and complete. The composer was attracted by images associated with fire : fire, flame, light, etc. are often mentioned in the titles of his works. This is due to his search for the possibilities of combining sound and light.

 

Correspondence of colors and tonalities according to Scriabin ("Prometheus")

In his early compositions, Scriabin, a subtle and sensitive pianist, consciously followed Chopin , and even created works in the same genres as him: etudes , waltzes , mazurkas , sonatas , nocturnes , impromptu , polonaise , concerto for piano and orchestra , although already in that period of his creative formation, the composer's own style was manifested. However, subsequently Scriabin turned to the genre of the poem , both piano and orchestral. His major works for orchestra are three symphonies ( the First was written in 1900, the Second  in 1902,Third  - in 1904), Poem of Ecstasy (1907), " Prometheus " (1910). In the score of the symphonic poem "Prometheus", Scriabin included the part of the light keyboard, thus becoming the first composer in history to use color music .

One of the last, unfulfilled plans of Scriabin was "Mystery", which was to be embodied in a grandiose performance - a symphony of not only sounds, but also colors, smells, movements, even sounding architecture. At the end of the 20th century, composer Alexander Nemtin, based on sketches and poems by Scriabin, created a complete musical version of its initial part - "Preliminary Action", however, excluding the main part of the text from it.

Scriabin considered his own creativity not as a goal and result, but as a means to achieve a much larger universal task. Through his main work, which was to be called "Mystery", he intended to complete the current cycle of the existence of the world, to unite the World Spirit with inert Matter in some kind of cosmic erotic act and thus destroy the current Universe, clearing the place for the creation of the next world. Purely musical innovation, which manifested itself especially boldly and vividly after the Swiss and Italian period of Scriabin's life ( 1903-1909 ) .) - he always considered secondary, derivative and designed to serve the fulfillment of the main goal. Strictly speaking, the main and brightest works of Scriabin - "The Poem of Ecstasy" and "Prometheus" - are nothing more than a preface ("Preliminary Action") or a description by means of musical language, exactly how everything will happen during the fulfillment of the Mystery and the union of the world Spirit with Matter.