CD review: Valentina Lisitsa, ‘Nuances’

Before abandoning himself to various forms of musical mysticism and pushing the harmonic language of late Romanticism almost to the point of atonality, Scriabin began like many budding composers before him — writing little pieces based on existing models.

[...] beguiling but limited new recital disc, the pianist Valentina Lisitsa has assembled more than a dozen Chopinesque exercises from Scriabin’s teenage years and given them performances that are far more eloquent and committed than they really warrant.

The interest here lies less in the music itself, which is capable and faceless, than in the hunt for glimpses of the mature composer to come; when you hear an odd harmony or an arresting formal disruption, you perk up in spite of yourself.

Fortunately, Lisitsa moves on to some later works, including selections from the Two Pieces, Op. 59, and the Three Etudes, Op. 65, which bring with them the relief of hearing the composer’s style in its full, elusive form.