I listened to Scriabin’s ‘The Poem of Ecstasy’ obsessively in the mid ’60s before becoming immersed in the late piano sonatas. I also had a soft spot for Rêverie, Scriabin’s earliest purely orchestral piece, composed in 1898 shortly after his Piano Concerto. Like that and other early works it shows the clear influence of Chopin, but already has an individuality that was to become increasingly marked in the music that followed. This arrangement for nine strings was made especially for a Britten Sinfonia concert at the Wigmore Hall in February 2019. The programme also included the premiere of my oboe octet Postludes.
Categories: Arrangements and orchestrations, Ensemble