Gessnerallee
Zürich

«A ghost-like temple made of glowing frankincense somewhere in the tropics, mysterious music, stars and the red sunset as the context of an ecstatic celebration of humankind’s self-destruction...»
(Leonid Sabanejew, «Erinnerungen an Alexander Skrjabin»)

Sitting at a grand piano, virtuoso pianist Stefan Wirth approaches the Promethean through five sonatas and musicological analyses: the mystical chord in «Prometheus» op. 60 and the persona of the early modern Russian composer Skrjabin are at the centre of this discursive, musical evening. The mystical chord constitutes the sound material of the entire piece – all the events in the music are directly deducted from this chord. In this sense, «Prometheus» is an early example of serial thought, appearing before Schönberg’s development of the twelve-tone technique. In Skrjabin, spirituality and mystical elevation always counteract rationality and static music. Oscillating between fascination and distance, this concertante lecture is a critical study of Skrjabin’s messianic saviour persona and of the invocation of a sensual Gesamtkunstwerk. After his brilliant appearance as pianist in «Tristan oder Isolde» last year at the Zürcher Festspiele, Stefan Wirth now returns with his own premiere.