IRINA FEOKTISTOVA

"[A] compelling performance."

Phil Muse, Atlanta Audio Club [November 2020]

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Click HERE to see a stunning visualization of this performance.

Click HERE to see a visualization of a performance of Scriabin's Vers La Flamme, Op.72
 

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"A great poem for the piano" is how Scriabin described his fifth piano sonata. It was composed at the same time as his great poem for orchestra, Le Poème de l’extase, and both works are based on the same literary program. The text represents his philosophic idea of the development of the world in poetic form, and it was published in a separate volume in 1906. In 1907 Scriabin announced that he had completed his fifth sonata, stating "I consider it to be the best of my works for piano. I do not know myself what kind of a miracle has happened."


The Poem of Ecstasy (selection):

"I summon you to life, hidden aspirations!
You, buried in the dark depths
Of the creative spirit, you, timid
Embryos of life, to you I bring daring."
 
"Я к жизни призываю вас, скрытые стремления!
Вы, утонувшие в темных глубинах
Духа творящего, вы, боязливые
Жизни зародыши, вам дерзновенье я приношу."
 
"Je vous appelle à la vie, o forces mystérieuses !
Noyées dans les obscures profondeurs
De l'esprit créateur, craintives
Ébauches de vie, à vous j'apporte l'audace ".

 

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IRINA FEOKTISTOVA, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, is a classically trained pianist that has performed in the major concert halls of Russia, Europe and the United States as a soloist, duo pianist and accompanist. In 1995, as a part of a piano duo, she participated in the Park Lane Group auditions and was chosen from 260 participants to perform at the Purcell Room of London’s Royal Festival Hall. The piano duo Polianovskaja-Feoktistova won third prize at the First International Competition of Contemporary Music Interpretation in Weimar, Germany (1996). In 1997, she gave a series of concerts as soloist with the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, conducted by Robert Groslot. In 1997, she participated in the Ninth International New Music Festival titled “SoundWays” as a piano duo and recorded her first disc.

Feoktistova emigrated to the United States in 1998, and since then has performed extensively in the Chicago area. She also worked as a free-lance musician at Roosevelt, Loyola, Northwestern and DePaul Universities, and has been involved in numerous musical theatre productions as accompanist and music director. Ms. Feoktistova has also been active in various projects performing Russian and American contemporary music. Since 2004, Ms. Feoktistova accompanied one of the world’s foremost performers of Baroque trumpet, Crispian Steele-Perkins on his yearly United States tour. In 2004 she won the Kawai CD Recording Competition in piano solo category. Ms. Feoktistova is affiliated with the CUBE, MAVerick and Vox3 ensembles in Chicago, and with the Union of Composers in St. Petersburg, where in May 2005 she performed a program of American contemporary music at the 41st International Festival “St. Petersburg Musical Spring” and recorded her CD titled ”Musical Bridge, Chicago – St. Petersburg”. In 2005 and 2007, she participated in John Cage’s “Musicircus” events organized by Chicago Composers Forum and the Museum of Contemporary Art. For the 2007 “Musicircus”, Ms. Feoktistova initiated the Scriabin “color-music” program in which her performances were accompanied by digitally created color animation projections.

In 2005 and 2006, Ms. Feoktistova worked as a coach and interpreter for Vladimir Galouzine, theprincipal Russian tenor, performing in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Turandot at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She also worked as a back stage pianist for Der Rosenkavalier (2006) and played organ for the Orchestra in Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten (2007) with Sir Andrew Davis conducting. Irina has been the principal keyboardist with the Millennium Chamber Players, a Chicago-based ensemble, since its founding in 2006. Her recordings include both classical and contemporary music, including such 20th century repertoire as Barber’s Hermit Songs with Russian singer Elena Antonenko (2003); Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire; works by Webern; and PeterM. Davies’s Eight Songs for aMad King with theMillenniumChamber Players. In 2007, Feoktistova was featured in the The Fazioli Salon Series, which was broadcasted live on WFMT radio. In June 2008, she made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist and an accompanist with Russian singer Vladimir Galuzine for the Russia Day concert.

www.IrinaFeoktistova.com
  ALEXANDER SCRIABIN
PIANO SONATA NO.5, OP.53 (1907)



MSR Classics