The Performance of Scriabin\u27s Piano Music: Evidence from the Piano Rolls

RILM abstract: An investigation of Skrjabin\u27s performing style based on the composer\u27s piano-roll recordings, focusing on a transcription of his 1910 recording of Poeme, op. 32, no. 1. The transcription demonstrates that in performance Skrjabin significantly changed the tempos, dynamics, articulation, rhythms, and even the original notes. Such features of the composer\u27s performing style as rubato, phrasing, pedaling, and digressions from the printed text are analyzed

The best bookshops in Saint Petersburg, Russia

Julia Leikin is a PhD candidate at UCL’s School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies, conducting research for her dissertation in Russia. In this post she talks us through the best bookshops in Saint Petersburg, Russia. If there’s a bookshop that you think other students and academics should visit when they’re undertaking research or visiting a city for a conference, find more information about contributing below

The Prostitution of the Russian Flag: Privateers in Russian Admiralty Courts, 1787-98

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from CUP via the DOI in this recordIn 1794, the Russian Empire convened the first high admiralty court for appeals to review petitions of merchants and privateers embroiled in the second Russian-Ottoman war of Catherine II's reign (1787-91). The Commission for Archipelago Affairs, as this admiralty court was called, decided more than 170 cases on the basis of Russian maritime law and its interpretation of the law of nations concerning commercial navigation and privateers. A year into its work, the commission determined that one case sat at the center of most disputes that pitted merchants against Russian-flagged privateers: The affair of Lambros Katsonis. The commission's decisions for most of the cases on its docket rested on its determination of Katsonis's standing in the Russian Empire. Once decided, the outcome of the matter went on to define the distinction between Russian privateers and naval officers in Russian law: precedents that shaped Russian naval practices for the next 50 years.Research support for this article was generously provided by the IREX Individual Advanced Research Opportunities Fellowship, a British Institute at Ankara Study Grant, the Centre for East European Language Based Area Studies, and the British School in Athen

Not Set in Stone: Mikhail Pletnev\u27s Rewrite of Scriabin\u27s Piano Concerto

Not Set in Stone: Mikhail Pletnev’s Rewrite of Scriabin’s Piano Concerto Scriabin’s Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20 (1897), was initially met with harsh criticisms. Then, in 1899, the critics’ and the public’s reaction suddenly changed from disparaging to admiring. Subsequently, Scriabin’s performances of the Concerto continued to consistently gather highest accolades throughout Russia, Western Europe, and the U.S. The only credible explanation for such a remarkable metamorphosis is that Scriabin somehow modified (and improved) the piano part in his performances. No written corrections of the piano score exist, which is not at all surprising. Scriabin never revised his piano scores on paper. He did, however, habitually introduce numerous and often substantive changes into the published texts in his performances, as evidenced by both contemporary accounts and his piano-roll recordings. Regrettably, Scriabin did not record the Concerto, and after his death in 1915, the Concerto gradually faded into virtual obscurity. Fortunately, the celebrated pianist, conductor, and composer Mikhail Pletnev has recently attempted to revive the Concerto’s former popularity. He revised—and, in many instances, rewrote—the piano part of the Concerto, mirroring Scriabin’s own documented approach to his scores. Pletnev now performs his version of the Concerto across Europe, playing it with various orchestras. This article analyzes representative musical examples selected from an unpublished piano score, which the author received from Pletnev, and demonstrates numerous, truly Scriabinesque improvements that Pletnev introduced into the Concerto

The Scriabin Companion: History, Performance, and Lore, by Lincoln Ballard and Matthew Bengtson

Book review: Ballard, Lincoln, Matthew Bengtson. The Scriabin Companion: History, Performance, and Lore. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-4422-3261-7. Anatole Leikin discusses this 2017 work by Lincoln Ballard and Matthew Bengtson

The education of mathematically gifted students: Some complexities and questions

In this paper I analyze some complexities in the education of mathematically gifted students. The list of issues presented in this paper is not inclusive; however, all of them seem to be typical on the international scope. Among these issues are: (1) the gap between research in mathematics education and the research in gifted education; (2) the role of creativity in the education of the gifted and the theoretical perspective on the relationship between creativity and giftedness, and (3) teaching the gifted and the teachers of gifted, including relationships between the equity principle in mathematics education and views on the education of gifted. In the paper I outline some actual research questions in the field of education of mathematically gifted

Greeks into Privateers: Law and Language of Commerce Raiding under the Imperial Russian Flag, 1760s-1790s

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Ashgate (Taylor & Francis) via the DOI in this record.The emergence and development of privateers as a separate social category in imperial Russia was neither a foregone conclusion nor an appropriation of Western practices, but rather a result of changes in Russia’s political and imperial culture. This chapter traces this evolution through three developments: the specific vocabulary referring to concrete activities perpetrated at sea under the Russian flag; distinct financial incentives that were codified only during the 1787 Russian-Ottoman War; and, the use of legal instruments and law-based strategies employed to regulate the activities of this specific subclass of combatant. The argument in this chapter begins with an explanation of the historical role of irregular troops in Russian strategy to show how this precedent was first used to organise recruits in the Eastern Mediterranean. It then pivots to an overview of Russia’s approach to commerce raiding and the changes that followed in the 1770s and 1780s. The final part argues that these developments set privateers apart from both foreign recruits and irregular troops

Looking back at the beginning: Critical thinking in solving unrealistic problems

We believe that problem-solving skills engage critical thinking at every phase of problem solution. In this research a special attention is given to the fist phase - understanding the problem . We consider this phase as a continuation of all the previous mathematical experience, in which understanding of new problems requires looking back at those solved in the past. Evaluation of the givens in the problem sometimes allows immediate solution whereas in other cases it shows that solution does not exist. We found that it is not easy for mathematics teachers to discover that a problem includes contradictory (i.e. unrealistic) conditions. We suggest that such problems should be included into teachers\u27 professional development programs to develop teachers\u27 awareness of the importance of mathematical accuracy and connectedness