Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray

The psychological complexity of Oscar Wilde’s famous novel centred on the wealthy socialite Dorian Gray, whose portrait ages instead of him, becoming a suppressed reflection of his moral failings, is wonderfully portrayed in Alexander Scriabin’s eccentric and expressive piano music. The sleazy atmosphere of the opium den Gray visits, for example, is captured perfectly in Scriabin’s demonic, ominous piece Vers la flamme. The Sonata Op. 23 as well as a number of Préludes, Études and other works are woven into the plot, occasionally in the form of leitmotifs. Rudolf Bella creates a broad tonal spectrum in his ingenious orchestration of Scriabin’s Music.