The 7 most healing pieces about death and life after death

Read on to discover 7 bloody pieces of death and life after death, as selected by the pianist Jewgeny Sudbin …

Scribin Against La flame

The pianist Vladimir Horowitzwho met Scribin When he was ten years old, Scriabin said this imagination to devour the whole world in the fire – to destroy it and create something better from it. Against La flameWhat means “towards the flame”, embodies this concept and conjures up the image of a fire that gets bigger and bigger until it devours the whole thing Piano. I love the way Siebin creates such a complexity from simple beginnings. For me this symbolizes the idea of ​​the universe. What appears is something bigger than the sum of its parts.

Medtner Mood picturesOp. 1, “the angel”

In contrast to Scriabin, who developed enormously as a composer, developed Medtner remained consistent from his first opus to this last. This piece based on a poem by Lermontov is the first that he has ever written. It speaks of an angel that flies across the sky and carries a young soul in his arms. This may seem pathological, but the piece is incredibly relaxed, without a touch of grief. It's like MozartThe music in which you feel like you don't change a single note: a sublime attitude to a topic that others may see as painful and negative.

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Scribin Prometheus, poem of the fire

This work, which the fire is a symbol for the development of human consciousness, is full of mysticism. I think it is the first piece that it ever combines with music, thanks to the inclusion of the color organ: a new instrument that has invented Scriabin for this piece, spends the colored light instead of music. But what I find incredible are they Harmonies – Immediately outside the ordinary and causes, as if they had always been there, like the substance of the universe. And the way the choir harmoniously brings in to the end gives me goose bumps.

Medtner Fairy taleOp. 51 No. 3

Medtner wrote many musical fairy tales and as part of German he inspired himself by the German folklore. I was sitting on the Euston Square station, surrounded by people in suits on the way to work when I heard this music. It immediately grabbed me – there was something in the way Medtner used harmonies, rhythms and textures that were so imaginative, but also so pianistic. I just had to sit down to listen properly and then hear it many times. It felt like you were hit by magic.

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Debussy L'Isle Joyeuse

This piece is based on the painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau The embarkation for cytherasymbolizes the search for eternal bliss: it is full of beautiful, aqueous textures in the piano and constant shifts in the key, with an orgiastic climax towards the end and the feeling that in this experience the entire island drowns and everyone dies or turns. There is the idea that you can die from Ecstasy – Scribin was obsessed with it, and I feel that Debussy also typed in. This is probably his most outstanding and extravagant musical work.

Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre

This piece of Saint-SaënsIn which the dead are summarized from their graves, the most verbal representation of death is on my list. But what is striking is his bizarre, humorous quality. This idea that death comes to them, takes them by the hand and tries to make them dance: it is kind of ridiculous and almost makes fun of death. Then everyone dances through the night and the whole thing becomes crazy and confused until the morning when the cockerel crows his famous melody. Although we often hear this piece in its orchestral version, it works perfectly on the piano: you can hear the bones rattling.

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Scribin Piano Sonata No. 9, 'Black Messe'

This piece is also about bringing demons back to life. But while Danse Macabre is ridiculous and humorous, that is very dark. Interestingly, over time when the play was written, deviling, sadism, necrophilia, cannibalism and other strange ceremonies bloomed around Russia. For example, the painter Nikolai Sperling, Scriabin's favorite artist, human blood and ate human meat to achieve mystical experiences. So there was something in the air at that time and maybe part of it has worked into this music – it is terrifying.

Who is Jevgeny Sudbin?

Pianist Yevgeny Sudbin, which was educated in Russia, moved to Berlin at the age of 10 and then at 17 to London and completed the Royal Academy of Music. He gave his BBC Proms debut in July 2008 and has played with orchestras all over the world since then. He is an example of the Russian pianistic tradition – thanks to his lively musical imagination and virtuosity – he is an advocate of Scriabin and Medtner. Be New recording of Scriabins piano work Is now on.