Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1872-1915) had big plans for his magnum opus Mysterium. The week-long work was to be held in a kind of ampitheatre venue, preferably in the foothills of the Himalyas, and the proto-multimedia spectacle would overwhelm the audience with sound, coloured lights, smoke, incense and dance. Scriabin, heavily into theosophy, wanted this extravaganza to bring about an apocalyptic raising up of humanity to a new consciousness. Then he died, having only completed some sketches for the "Prefatory Action", in itself to be a three-part, hours-long overture.
Alexander Nemtin (1936-1999) became fascinated by Scriabin's insane concept and unfinished drafts, and over three decades realised his version of Prefatory Action from educated guesswork at Scriabin's intentions. The first part, running to 40 minutes and given the title Universe, was completed in the early 70s and recorded in 1973. It's a wonderfully bonkers labour of love that drifts and shimmers in space; sometimes not quite sure whether it wants to be a Messiaen-like psychedelic symphony, or a piano concerto where the score's come through a wonky fax machine. Eventually it builds to an epic choral finale - a false ending, in fact, as it does so again for the closing minutes.
Nemtin would eventually complete all three parts, apparently with diminishing returns as he'd already used almost all of Scriabin's material in the first. Universe is definitely worth hearing though, as a small insight into what could've been truly magnificent had Scriabin lived, transformative apocalypse or not. On this CD reissue, it's accompanied by two shorter orchestral works that he did complete in his lifetime: a nice full-bodied Symphonic Poem finished in 1897 but only published posthumously, and a sweet-sounding Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra from 1889. No recording dates for these, but the 1980s or early 90s can be assumed as the recording quality is noticeably sharper than for Universe.
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| Original LP cover, 1973 |
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