The Scriabin Mystery is brought to vivid life by acclaimed French pianist Vincent Larderet and celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Russian composer. Making his AVIE debut, Larderet presents a comprehensive survey of the scope of Scriabin’s output and the evolution of his style, from his early, post-Romantic works influenced by Chopin and Liszt, through to the modernism of the 20th century in his final works. His harmonies famously colored by his synesthesia, Scriabin’s craft was a revolutionary fusion of freedom of expression underpinned by a sense of unity and geometric proportion, his psychologically complex constructions infused with incandescence and mysticism. Scriabin’s music has long held pride of place in Larderet’s repertoire. He offers a brilliant and broad overview of the composer’s evolution in chronological sequence, revealing the mystery of one of the most visionary composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Scriabin’s life was tragically cut short at the age of 43, leaving his final work, Acte préalable, unfinished. Long thought lost, the sketches were re-discovered by composer and musicologist Manfred Kelkel, who used the material for his composition Tombeau de Scriabine. Vincent includes the Prelude of this work as a touching encore to The Scriabin Mystery.

French pianist Vincent Larderet inaugurates a definitive, four-volume series of the composer’s complete works for solo piano, signifying Vincent’s fulfilment of a decades-long devotion his compatriot. This first-ever Urtext compilation of Ravel’s complete works for solo piano is a landmark collection that embraces numerous world-premiere renditions. Many works, whilst familiar, are prepared and recorded from personal scores that were annotated by pianist and pedagogue Vlado Perlemuter during his private study and close collaboration with the composer between 1927 and 1929. These scores reveal invaluable insights to interpretation of such aspects as tempi, pedalling, phrasing and tonal colours. Through his tutelage under Perlemuter’s student Carlos Cebro, Vincent Larderet is a direct inheritor of Ravel’s ethos and interpretive style.

Volume 1 of Vincent’s Ravel survey includes original solo piano versions of the popular Valses nobles et sentimentales and Pavane pour une infante de´funte, alongside the five-movement suite Miroirs and Sonatine.

Cosmopolitan by nature, independently minded and prolific, Florent Schmitt sought inspiration from many sources for his highly original compositions. His Ombres, Op. 64 (Shadows) has been compared with Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, and Mirages, Op. 70 pays tribute to Debussy and Liszt. The Tragedy of Salome, originally a ballet score in seven scenes, was praised by Igor Stravinsky as ‘one of the greatest masterpieces in modern music’. The composer’s version for piano retains the dramatic impetus of the original and here receives its world première recording. Vincent Larderet is a prize-winner in several international piano competitions and performs in major concert halls and at renowned international festivals.

This recording contains the piano concertos of Maurice Ravel and a piece for piano and orchestra by Florent Schmitt, performed by pianist Vincent Larderet, the OSE Symphonic Orchestra, and conductor Daniel Kawka. Vincent Larderet's performance of Ravel's piano concertos is marked by careful adherence to the original score and respect for the composer's markings, while at the same time, liberating it from certain habits of interpretation. Florent Schmitt's reputation as a composer rivaled Ravel's during his life time, though his music has now inexplicably and unjustifiably fallen into obscurity. The restoration of an extraordinary musical score may contribute to the rehabilitation of one of the greatest French composers of his generation.

It is Vincent Larderet's passion and artistic goal to achieve such musical and pianistic accuracy through a close reading of the annotations in Perlemuter's own edition of Ravel's works. Larderet focuses on two critical aspects of Ravel's musical language: firstly, the composer's engagement with various traditions of virtuosity and secondly, Ravel's specific ideas regarding orchestration and the orchestral character of his piano style.