project description

Premiered: February 29, 2024

Classical Piano
Contemporary Dance Improvisation
Light Performance
Perfume/Aroma Interactive Installations
Stage Design + Effects

Re-interpreting the Five Late Piano Sonatas by Alexander Scriabin with a fresh look on classical music from a contemporary angle: interlacing sound, color, movement, light, scent, and space.

In his later works, Alexander Scriabin incorporated into his compositions an expanding set of genres that involved sensations beyond the aural, such as light, color, movement, scent, touch, space.  In this project the Intertwining Arts Team focuses on the intersubjective artistic interpretation, which multiplies and unfolds the first-person experience of an artist, and which was of special interest to Scriabin himself.  We present his Five Late Sonatas, which are paradigmatic of his late piano works. However, evident of his holistic approach, the score itself does not sufficiently indicate his artistic ideas. Therefore, the full extent of Scriabin’s artistic goals for his late sonatas must have been gathered in additional sources.  Scriabin's creative vision could then be fulfilled and reconstructed through the use of multiple art forms.

For artists, there are certain questions that must be tackled. For example: apart from following the score, what other artistic goals should there be for a musical performer? How can a piece be prepared in the context of a crossdisciplinary setting? In what ways is the sensory perception of a performer(s) affected and what interpretational changes can possibly occur in these circumstances?

This project is the final artistic presentation of Intertwining Arts in this format — the entire perennial artistic research aims to discover:

• how a collaboration with performers of other artistic media can create a feedback/dialogue between the artists on stage

• how it may affect the each artist’s interpretation in particular

• how a relation/counterpoint between the senses can bring mutual enrichment through collaborative work in different modalities

  
  
  

The reconstruction of Scriabin’s artistic vision occurred in the form of a crossdisciplinary performance on stage.  Pianist Elina Akselrud will collaborate with artists from other artistic media.  The elements of this interactive research-performance of sound (piano) and live responses/mixing/improvisation on a preliminary-set base/script has included:

• Movement (dance / shadow play)

• Color (lighting effects, light performance via help of sensors attached to the body for simultaneous reaction to micro-movements)

• Fog (colored by light, fog machine)

• Scent (perfumer)

• Space (Installations / Set design to explore various spacial possibilities)

Scriabin intended to express particular contrasting mental states in his work.  Moreover, the composer once mentioned that “in his Late Sonatas he had at last managed to transcend the realm of human emotion”.  After a preliminary research, the following table was compiled for the Five Late Sonatas that includes the key(s), corresponding color(s), and the imageries or messages that each sonata seeks to imply:

Through the intermedial combination we explore the emotional depths and the challenges of the Five Late Sonatas, ranging from bliss to estrangedness, from wickedness to radiant joy, as well as particular kinds of thoughts or imageries that would put the artists themselves into a specific headspace, which will in turn affect the interpersonal interpretational decision-making.  These crossdisciplinary processes create fresh and unique links with the audience, enabling them to perceive the production from various angles, while leaving a profound multi-sensorial input. 

Scriabin pointed out that “through music and color, with the aid of perfume, the human mind or soul can be lifted outside or above merely physical sensations into the region of purely abstract ecstasy and purely intellectual speculation.”

The current goal of the Intertwining Arts Team was to conduct an artistic experiment for the Sonatas Nos. 6-10 and to focus extensively on incorporating Alexander Scriabin’s multidisciplinary ideas, conceptual directions, and imagery by the means of symbolism and expanding artistic interpretation from a solo piano recital to a crossdisciplinary performance, as well as creating the cinematic version of the project in two parts, in order to depict the process from all the possible angles — which means including not just the pure artistic product, but also capturing discussions, interviews, and tryouts. 

We are extremely grateful for the support of the Performance AND Film Making to:

University of Music and Performing Arts Graz
abo@MUMUTH
Vice-Rectorate for Research, Gender and Diversity
Doctoral School for Artistic Research
Stadt Graz Kulturamt
Land Steiermark Kultur, Europa, Sport
ÖH — The Austrian National Student Union