Julius Asal (piano)
Scriabin & Scarlatti
rec. 2023, Teldex Studios, Berlin
Deutsche Grammophon 4865283 [73]
This is my first encounter with German pianist Julius Asal. His biography states that he hails from a family of musicians near Frankfurt, and he could play the piano by ear even before he could speak. His musical studies were undertaken in Berlin at the Hochschule für Musik. The winner of several competition prizes, he has performed to audiences throughout Europe and in Japan. His debut CD was released in 2022 on the Spanish label IBS Classical, and featured works by Prokofiev in addition to his own arrangements from the composer’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. In 2023 he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and this is his debut album with the label. I also discovered that he was recently selected as a BBC New Generation Artist from September 2024 for two years.
At first sight, Scriabin and Scarlatti would seem to be unlikely bedfellows. Born two centuries apart, Scriabin is renowned for his “obsessive interest in mysticism and his messianic delusions”. Domenico Scarlatti, meanwhile, is the composer of 555 keyboard sonatas, and was responsible for significant innovation in keyboard virtuosity. His music, bathed in lyricism, was influential in the development of the classical style.
Asal’s imaginative and well-curated programme, presenting the music of these two composers side by side, works very well indeed. In the booklet notes the pianist expresses his lifelong love of Scriabin’s music, with special reference to the Piano Sonata No 1 In F Minor, Op 6, which he’s studied intensely, “probing the four-movement composition’s complex layers”. So, the Sonata forms the focal point of this recital.
The album has been aptly described as a “dreamlike meditation in which the boundaries between pieces, eras and states of mind fade away”. Asal constructs his programme as follows. The Sonata sits centre-stage, and around it is woven Scriabin etudes and preludes and a selection of Scarlatti sonatas. The two Transitions, composed by the pianist himself, were originally improvisations, but were later formalised in written score. Their function is to help bridge the gap between the style and emotion of the pieces that come before and after them. The programme is bookended by Scriabin’s Quasi niente from the final movement “Funebre” of the Piano Sonata. These act as a prologue and epilogue, and are described by Andrew Stewart as “a sequence of sonorous chords notated as ghostly minims and marked to be played as if Quasi niente (Almost nothing)”.
After a sonorous and sepulchral introduction, Asal launches into the melancholic strains of Scarlatti’s Sonata in F Minor, K 466. Scriabin’s C minor Prelude is, by contrast dramatic and intensely passionate. Two contrasting Scarlatti Sonatas follow, the first sprightly and playful (K56), the second wistful and pensive (K58). Both are in the key of C minor. Then comes Scriabin’s First Piano Sonata, an emotionally charged work. The opener is dramatic and fervent. The slow movement is very personal and prayer-like. A buoyant Presto follows, and a dark Funebre movement acts as a finale. I’ve heard this sonata many times, and Asal’s performance is the finest I’ve come across; he captures the vast range of emotions to perfection. The pianist’s First Transition follows Scarlatti’s K238. Scriabin’s Etude and Prelude are both meditative in character. There are four more Preludes, each very different in character and mood. The one in B minor Op. 11 No. 6 is climactic and provides a fitting contrast and lead-in to the last piece, Scarlatti’s ubiquitous Sonata in B minor, K 87, a work of mournful ambience.
This is a beautifully recorded disc, where Berlin’s Teldex Studios provide a spacious and sympathetic acoustic. Asal has chosen two different Steinways for the recording, one for the sumptuous dark sonorities, the other for music requiring a clear, crisp sound. His playing is sensitive, responsive to the range and narrative of the music and is imbued with a vast palette of colourful sonorities. The booklet notes, in English only, are by Andrew Stewart and contain lengthy quotations of an interview with the pianist. This is a remarkably assured debut album, imaginatively constructed, probing and a tribute to sensitivity and outstanding musicianship.
Stephen Greenbank
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Contents
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Prologue Quasi Niente From Piano Sonata No 1 In F Minor, Op 6: IV Funebre
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Keyboard Sonata In F Minor, K. 466
Alexander Scriabin
Prelude In C Minor, Op. 11, No 20
Domenico Scarlatti
Keyboard Sonata In C Minor, K 56
Keyboard Sonata In C Minor, K 58
Alexander Scriabin
Piano Sonata No 1 In F Minor, Op 6
Domenico Scarlatti
Keyboard Sonata In F Minor, K 238
Julius Asal (b.1997)
Transition I
Alexander Scriabin
Etude In B Flat Minor, Op 8, No 11
Prelude In B Flat Major, Op 11, No 21
Domenico Scarlatti
Keyboard Sonata In B Flat Major, K 544
Alexander Scriabin
Prelude In E Flat Minor, Op 16, No 4
Julius Asal
Transition II
Alexander Scriabin
Prelude In E Flat Minor, Op 11, No 14
Prelude In B Major, Op 16, No 1
Prelude In B Minor, Op. 11, No 6
Domenico Scarlatti
Keyboard Sonata In B Minor, K 87
Alexander Scriabin
Epilogue Quasi Niente From Piano Sonata No 1 In F Minor, Op 6
