At the crossroads of Romanticism and Modernism, Rachmaninoff, Reger, and Scriabin each seek their own answer to the challenges of a world in in rapid transformation. Modern-tinged melancholy, Symbolist imagery, mystical ecstasy — boundaries blur and personal expression prevails.

-----

America never truly felt like home to Rachmaninov: his Romantic style was dismissed as old-fashioned, and he felt out of step with the new musical currents. This Fourth Piano Concerto reveals his search for a renewed musical identity; on no other work did he labor so long or so intensely. The result? A concerto that balances on the edge of Romanticism and Modernism, filled with melancholy, grotesquery, and exuberance.

As a bridge to Scriabin’s Poème de l’extase, Max Reger breathes life into the mysterious paintings of Arnold Böcklin. It is a whimsical musical journey that wavers between intimate solitude and wild, pagan celebration.

A messiah destined to change the world through music: this is how Alexander Scriabin saw himself, far from humble. “When you listen to Poème de l’extase, look the sun straight in the eye!” he once told a friend. The work is an orgy of musical excess, much like the poem (all 300 lines of it!) he wrote to accompany the score. Despite its shadowy mysticism, it evokes the timelessness Scriabin dreamed of—bursting with cosmic energy, spiritual liberation, and, ultimately, pure ecstasy.