22 CON ELEGANZA How does the Fantasie Op. 28 fit into your programme, and what makes it special? Played after the Impromptus, the Fantaisie is a fairly strong reminder of the sonata. It is a final romantic impulse, a transition between the Third and Fourth Piano Sonatas, which opens Scriabin's second creative period. In one highly structured breath, it resembles a large sonata movement, which derives much of its force from its solid aspect. Theatrical, deliberately tragic, with an exaggerated lyricism, it conveys its author's taste for excess. It exudes something dangerous and terribly attractive. When you play it, you feel an irresistible urge to go towards that danger, to be caught up in it. It has that fatal quality. That's part of its breathtaking effect, beyond its formal structure. With it, Scriabin pushed back all limits. First and foremost, those of the pianist, because it is particularly difficult, but also those of the timbre of the piano, those of piano writing, whose possibilities it goes so far as to exceed, and finally those of the listener, by its spectacular nature, in a sonic intoxication reaching its peak.
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