Date of composition: 1903-1904
Premiere: first performed on 29 May 1905 in Paris with the Orchestre Colonne, conductor: Arthur Nikisch
Duration: 43 minutes
Performances by the Berliner Philharmoniker:
first performed on 18 January 1909 at the Philharmonie Bernburger Straße
When Alexander Scriabin composed his Third Symphony, his life was shaken by profound upheaval. He resigned his piano professorship at the Moscow Conservatory, stepping into the precarious existence of a freelance composer and performer; he met Tatyana de Schloezer and separated from his wife Vera, who had just given birth to their fourth child; he left Moscow and moved abroad, first to Switzerland, then to France, Italy, and Belgium. Increasingly, philosophical and religious ideas shaped his thinking and his music. All of this is reflected in the symphony, which was premiered in Paris under the baton of Arthur Nikisch, then chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
In terms of output, Scriabin’s orchestral work is comparatively modest, as he wrote extensively for solo piano. Beyond a four-minute miniature (Rêverie) and a piano concerto, his orchestral oeuvre comprises three symphonies and two standalone works—just seven large-scale compositions. Yet their ambition spans an entire cosmos. The symphony performed today represents a turning point. While the First Symphony required six movements to give full expression to his ideas, the Second needed only five; the Third finally condenses itself into three. It is the first, however, to bear a title: “Le divin poème” (The Divine Poem). Each of the three movements, which flow seamlessly into one another, also carries its own heading. They are united by the aim of expanding the boundaries of classical music, of liberating sound itself.
Where Scriabin initially treated art as a substitute for religion, his later works aspire to the liberation of humanity, underpinned by philosophical, theosophical, and mystical ideas. The compositions seem like successive incarnations of a single idea, growing ever more precise and radical with each piece. Musical motifs recur in nearly identical form across both symphonic works and the corresponding piano pieces and sonatas composed simultaneously.
The Third Symphony can be understood as a happy medium, both as a purely musical composition and as the expression of a grand vision. Its essence was captured in a few lines by Tatyana de Schloezer, likely written in close consultation with Scriabin. This programme note was intended to be distributed to the audience at the Paris premiere, but for unknown reasons it was not:
“The first movement of Poème divin, Luttes Struggles, depicts the battle between humanity enslaved by a personified deity and the free human being who carries divinity within. The latter emerges victorious, but his will is still too weak to proclaim his own divinity. He plunges into the pleasures of the sensual world. This is the content of the second movement, Voluptés Pleasures. From the depths of his being, he gains sublime strength, helping him to overcome his weakness, and in the final movement, Jeu divin Divine Play, the spirit, freed from its bonds, surrenders to the joy of existence.”
The symphony opens with a motto-like statement: a striking theme in the trombones answered by an upward leap of a sixth in the trumpets. These contrasting motifs recur throughout the work, building the foundation for the first movement’s contrasting themes, persisting throughout the ecstatic rapture of the second, and culminating in the radiant triumph of the finale.