THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Pianist Yevgeny Sudbin chooses the most gleefully ghoulish pieces inspired by death and mysticism

- Hannah Nepilova

Brought up in Russia, pianist Yevgeny Sudbin moved to Berlin aged 10, and then to London at 17, graduating from the Royal Academy of Music. He made his BBC Proms debut in July 2008 and has since performed with orchestras all over the world. Widely considered to be an example of the Russian pianistic tradition – thanks to his vivid musical imagination and virtuosity – he is a champion of Scriabin and Medtner. His new recording of Scriabin’s piano works is released on BIS this month.

Scriabin Vers la Flamme

The pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who met Scriabin when he was ten years old, said that Scriabin had this fantasy of engulfing the whole world in fire – of destroying it and creating something better out of it. Vers la Flamme, meaning ‘Towards the Flame’, embodies this concept, conjuring the image of a fire that gets bigger and bigger until it engulfs the whole piano. I love the way that Scriabin generates such complexity from simple beginnings; for me, this symbolises the idea of the universe. What emerges is something bigger than the sum of its parts.

Medtner Stimmungsbilder, Op. 1, ‘The Angel’