Samuil Feinberg, piano

Samuil Feinberg’s artistic career was a remarkable phenomenon of 20th century domestic music life. A pianist, distinctive composer and educator who created his own performing school, he showed his worth in each of these roles, being notable for the integrity of his personality and creative aspirations. In 1911, when he was about to graduate from the Moscow Conservatory, he struck the examination board with the scope of his repertoire and depth of his interpretations. Samuil Feinberg made his last recordings not long before his death in the early 1960s.

The musician’s performing interests were truly grandiose, but as a composer and performer, Feinberg was close to Scriabin and to the feel of his music. When the author of 'The Poem of Ecstasy' heard young Feinberg play, he fully appreciated his pianistic art.

The pianist’s peculiar techniques of phonation noted by his contemporaries – “the way he moves his fingers, never striking, as if fondling the keys, a transparent and at times velvety tone of his instrument, contrasting sounds, finesse of his rhythmic patterns” – were to a degree an extension of Scriabin’s tradition. Samuil Feinberg’s repertoire included all piano sonatas and most of the small scale compositions by Scriabin.

These recordings of nineteen mazurkas, Op.3 and Op.25, from Scriabin’s early period were made in the 1950s.