This piano prelude dates from 1897. Whilst Scriabin was famous and his importance recognised in his lifetime his music has been largely ignored and forgotten since his death. His musical language is frequently extremely chromatic and dissonant whilst his early works can be described as belonging to the late romantic period in music history and are essentially tonal works. Many of his preludes and short works are both beautiful and challenging pieces of music and are deserving of more attention and being played. This particularly piece has been popularised by the American group the Punch Brothers on their album Phosphorescent Blues. As a young composer Scriabin was influenced by Chopin but in his later life he became pre-occupied with mysticism and theosophy in time becoming identified as a symbolist composer.
