Symphony No.2 - Finale
Alexander Scriabin wrote his Second Symphony in the same year (1901) in which Elgar wrote his first two Pomp and Circumstance marches. The work is in the five-movement form later favoured by Bartók, with the slow section at the centre. In the finale Scriabin, who was a fine architect, reworks themes from the brooding first movement into a majestic march with delightful interludes worthy of his English counterpart (who also liked to think at the piano). The original is in the key of C, which Scriabin is supposed to have heard as the colour red, although whether he was a synaesthete in reality or only in principle is disputed. This band version is in A flat, more sonorous and less taxing (and variously perceived as gentle violet or dullish gold). The sudden key change in the coda at 4' 18" (which the composer would have intended as a display of orchestral mauves and purples) becomes a pattern of primary colours.