Scriabin Rubs Shoulders with Joplin at O1C

Pianist Lee Alan Nolan (from his O1C event page)

The title of last night’s solo piano recital by Lee Alan Nolan for Old First Concerts (O1C) was From Rags to Mystics. That title could be appreciated in terms of the two best-known composers on the program Scott Joplin and Alexander Scriabin. What could be gained from this juxtaposition is best decided in the mind of the listener.

The Scriabin selection was the Opus 64 (“White Mass”) sonata. After completing his fourth sonata (Opus 30 in F-sharp minor), Scriabin dispensed with key signatures and explicit segmentation into separate movements. The fifth sonata (Opus 53) was composed in 1907; and Opus 64 was one of two sonatas composed in 1911 (preceded by Opus 61). Without trying to be disparaging, Opus 64 is an eruption of notes, flooding the keyboard with such a density that, even with the assistance of the score, the ear can barely sort out anything on a scale larger than a brief motif. In the absence of any frame of reference, the listener must depend on how the pianist shapes all those notes to gain even the slightest hint of any underlying patterns.

Nevertheless, there was an intensity to Nolan’s keyboard style that propelled the attentive listener through that flood of notes. If Scriabin’s intention was to sever the mind of the listener from any sense of logic and, instead, shroud that listener with a mystical fog that dispensed with conventions such as any evidence of progression, then Nolan’s performance can be said to be true to the composer. Indeed, his commitment to Scriabin’s worldview was preceded, during the first half of the program, by a similarly ambiguous composition on a relatively large scale. This was Bruce Christian Bennett’s “Schematic Nocturne,” which was composed for Nolan in 1997. Last night was thus the work’s 25th anniversary, leaving me wondering how often this piece has been played since its premiere performance.

The remaining “mystical experience” was the opening selection, “Pockets of Light” by Lubomyr Melnyk. The composer described this as an example of what he calls “pure Continuous Music,” drawing upon an alternate notation to allow for a sense of improvisation. Nolan may have decided to begin his program with this selection because Melnyk is of Ukrainian origin.

While Joplin was represented on the program by two of his rags (and a third taken as an encore), Nolan also included two of his contemporaries, both of whom were female. While I do not think I have encountered either Irene M. Giblin or May Aufderheide on any of Sarah Cahill’s Future is Female programs, I do recall that, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Corey Jamason performed their music at a Historical Performance concert in September of 2018. Both of them have Wikipedia pages (hence the hyperlinks). Nolan concluded his program with “Chicken Chowder,” described as Giblin’s “biggest success” on her Wikipedia page; and Aufderheide’s Wikipedia page includes the cover art of the selection that Nolan played, “The Thriller.” Since “Chicken Chowder” was performed immediately after Scriabin’s Opus 64, it provided a well-appreciated change of scene!