It has been conjectured that these pieces for left hand alone might have resulted from an injury to Scriabin's right shoulder, incurred in his teens. It is true that in some of his later compositions he reduced the role of the right hand. But then Scriabin was an oddball genius whose style grew increasingly radical. His focus on the left hand, both here and in later works, may have been simply an artistic quirk.

The first of this pair, the Prelude in C sharp minor, is tense and dark, featuring a sad Chopinesque theme. The music naturally has somewhat skeletal harmonies, but overall Scriabin's deft underpinnings are effective and atmospheric, at times giving the illusion that both hands are playing. The second work is a Nocturne, in D flat major. It is sweet and Lisztian, again offering an attractive melody, this one quite long-breathed. Its final appearance reaches an ecstatic climax, before gently and playfully concluding. Both these pieces enjoyed a minor vogue in the middle twentieth century, but are generally and unfairly neglected today.

© Robert Cummings, Rovi

1.Prelude in C#-

When Scriabin was in his teens, he suffered an injury to his right shoulder. He probably didn't incur any lasting substantial handicap from the misfortune, but some have surmised that the Op. 9 pieces and the composer's subsequent tendency in some piano works to focus less on the role of the right hand might have been related to the injury. Whatever accounted for Scriabin's decision to write this piece for the left hand alone is still a matter for conjecture, but the Prelude's artistic worth generates no controversy. While it exhibits the influence of Chopin—hardly a surprising quality in early Scriabin—it is thematically attractive and so well-crafted in its writing that the listener will hardly notice the idleness of the other hand. Chopin's voice can be heard in the forlorn beauty of the main theme, a short-breathed creation that dominates the entire three-minute length of the piece in one guise or another. The mood is sad and gentle at the outset, but soon turns angry and intense, only to yield back to the quieter bereavement of the opening. A last struggle to rise up again precedes the hushed, gloomy ending.

© All Music Guide

2.Nocturne in Db

In the admittedly narrow genre of solo piano works for left hand, this is one of the more popular pieces. It is a lush, Romantic composition, Scriabin not yet divulging the mystical, quirky character prominent in most of his later works. While this piece exhibits the influence of Chopin, it does not divulge the generally darker manner of his nocturnes. It is full of passion and yearning, full of the kind of Romantic outpourings that would permeate so much of the keyboard output of Scriabin's friend Rachmaninov. The work opens with a lovely long-breathed theme, whose range spans most of the keyboard. Harmonies, mostly played in the bass and middle registers, become part of the thematic flow, not least because only one hand is playing the notes. The theme's arched contour favors its descending half until the final ecstatic phrase in the upper register. The stormy middle section is comprised of a passionate variant of the melody and is followed by a return of the theme in its original guise. A final, ecstatic rendering of it ensues, sending the music into a sort of playful, gleeful tailspin before the quiet close. This Nocturne typically has a duration of four to five minutes.

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