Between soaring and sinking, creating and destroying, the gift of fire and the dissolution of the world in cataclysmic bliss, Russian composer Alexander Scriabin had big ideas about music. Based in theosophy, literally "God-wisdom", the solipsistic composer believed his final work, left unfinished, would bring about the end of the world as giant bells tolled over the Himalayas--suspended by dirigibles. Slightly less grandiose, his Poem of Ecstasy is a celebration of the act of creation, based on a poem of the same name. Hear it tonight for free at Symphony Center with the Civic Orchestra.
From mysterious wombs / The spirit confused /
A formless host / Of savage terrors /
Rises stormily / In menacing waves; /
It threatens / All to submerge
[from the poem]
Scriabin's musical language is no less blunt: delirious with joy, dripping with desire, and a veritable orgy of melodic fragments building up grand climaxes. Fortunately, though, the teenage intensity of Scriabin's emotions translate better in his late-Romantic music--it helps to have 8 horns, 5 trumpets, 3 trombones, and tuba.
Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Civic Orchestra, the training orchestra for the Chicago Symphony. Tickets are free, but if you "buy" them online, there's a $2 handling fee per ticket.
Starts at 8. Also includes some Sibelius. Preconcert talk is at 6:30. I'll be there.
Filed under: Civic
