Each generation has its own master composers, authors, writers. Names and faces come and go in that virtual Pantheon; and many faces return with new aspects. Alexander Scriabin was a cause of controversy during his lifetime and directly after his legend-inducing sudden, early death. Unlike that of many figures from pre-revolutionary Russia, his reputation survived the social cataclysm; the breadth of interpretation in Soviet criticism alone, from straightforward heroic mythmaking to competing methods of technical analysis, bears witness to an artistic personality far beyond the "elf" celebrated by his contemporary, the poet Balmont. But does he still measure up to the other pole of Balmont's dual appellation, the "Titan"?No composer has suffered more from fixed ideas than Scriabin. Was he mad? What was his attitude towards women, towards sex? What music (if any) did he admire? This last rephrases Stravinsky's rhetorical question about Scriabin's roots. Here, an international team of leading experts examines Scriabin from the viewpoints of musical analysis, social background, literary and artistic affiliations, religion and spirituality, especially the relevance of Hinduism and Sufism.Rethinking Scriabin seeks answers through well-documented research towards a rethought attitude to the artist, the man and his world.
