Date of composition: 1903-1904
Premiere: first performed on 29 May 1905 in Paris with the Orchestre Colonne, conductor: Arthur Nikisch
Duration: 43 minutes
- Slow. Divin, grandiose –
- Struggles. Allegro – Mysterious, tragic –
- Delights. Lento. Sublime – Voluptuous – Vivo. Divine growth –
- Divine Play. Allegro. With bright joy
Performances by the Berliner Philharmoniker:
first performed on January 18, 1909 at the Philharmonie Bernburger Straße
When Alexander
Scriabin composed his Third Symphony, his life was shaken by profound upheaval.
He resigned his piano professorship at the Moscow Conservatory, stepping into
the precarious existence of a freelance composer and performer; he met Tatyana
de Schloezer and separated from his wife Vera, who had just given birth to
their fourth child; he left Moscow and moved abroad, first to Switzerland, then
to France, Italy, and Belgium. Increasingly, philosophical and religious ideas
shaped his thinking and his music. All of this is reflected in the symphony,
which was premiered in Paris under the baton of Arthur Nikisch, then chief
conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
In terms of output, Scriabin’s orchestral work is
comparatively modest, as he wrote extensively for solo piano. Beyond a
four-minute miniature (Reverie) and a piano concerto, his orchestral
oeuvre comprises three symphonies and two standalone works—just seven
large-scale compositions. Yet their ambition spans an entire cosmos. The
symphony performed today represents a turning point. While the First Symphony
required six movements to give full expression to his ideas, the Second needed
only five; the Third finally condenses itself into three. It is the first,
however, to bear a title: “The divine poem” (The Divine Poem). Each of the three movements, which flow
seamlessly into one another, also carries its own heading. They are united by
the aim of expanding the boundaries of classical music, of liberating sound
itself.
Where Scriabin initially treated art as a substitute
for religion, his later works aspire to the liberation of humanity, underpinned
by philosophical, theosophical, and mystical ideas. The compositions seem like
successive incarnations of a single idea, growing ever more precise and radical
with each piece. Musical motifs recur in nearly identical form across both
symphonic works and the corresponding piano pieces and sonatas composed
simultaneously.
The Third Symphony can be understood as a happy medium,
both as a purely musical composition and as the expression of a grand vision.
Its essence was captured in a few lines by Tatyana de Schloezer, likely written
in close consultation with Scriabin. This programme note was intended to be
distributed to the audience at the Paris premiere, but for unknown reasons it
was not:
“The first movement of Divine poem, Struggles
Strugglesdepicts the battle between humanity enslaved by a personified
deity and the free human being who carries divinity within. The latter emerges
victorious, but his will is still too weak to proclaim his own divinity. He
plunges into the pleasures of the sensual world. This is the content of the
second movement, Voluptuousness Pleasures. From the depths of his being, he
gains sublime strength, helping him to overcome his weakness, and in the final
movement, divine game Divine Playthe spirit, freed from its bonds,
surrenders to the joy of existence.”
The symphony opens with a motto-like statement: a
striking theme in the trombones answered by an upward leap of a sixth in the
trumpets. These contrasting motifs recur throughout the work, building the
foundation for the first movement’s contrasting themes, persisting throughout
the ecstatic rapture of the second, and culminating in the radiant triumph of
the finale.
