Find classical music concert, opera, ballet and dance reviews | Piano Sonata no. 9 in F major, "Black Mass Sonata," Op.68

Pounding the 26 miles from Greenwich Park to The Mall wasn't the only marathon in London today. At Milton Court, Peter Donohoe ran his own marathon, tackling all ten sonatas by Alexander Scriabin.

Alexander Melnikov summons up the full range of pianistic emotions in Chopin's 24 Preludes, followed by exploration of texture and dynamic contrast in Scriabin.

Darkness and light were the main focus of Jeremy Denk's debut at the Chamber Proms in a programme which opened with Scriabin’s demonic  “Black Mass” piano sonata and closed with Beethoven’s otherworldly Op.111.

A dark thread ran through Yevgeny Sudbin’s recital at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, from the sombre B minor sonata by Haydn to Scriabin’s infamous “Black Mass” sonata and Saint-Saens’ virtuosic Danse macabre.

One hundred years to the day since the death of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, American pianist Garrick Ohlsson concluded his two-concert “Skryabin Focus” at London’s Wigmore Hall with a recital of works which spanned the final two decades of Scriabin’s life.

In around 1822, an eleven-year-old Franz Liszt performed for Beethoven. It’s claimed that Beethoven gave him his blessing and kissed him on the forehead. A lifetime later, in 1885, Liszt wrote La lugubre gondola, a harsh, drastically dissonant piano piece commemorating the death of Wagner.It’s easy to forget how short the nineteenth century was.

Il est de ces personnes, rares et précieuses, qui ont su garder de leurs jeunes années l’enthousiasme, la gaîté et la fraîcheur, comme si le temps n’avait sur eux que l’effet d’un souffle délicat.