[Petrenko] shows an excellent grasp of each symphony's dramatic trajectory, and a broader than usual awareness of the creative legacy within which Scriabin worked

Petrenko’s debut disc with his new Oslo band should not be overlooked: Scriabin’s virtuosic writing holds no terrors for them, and they wallow in
the “Voluptés” of No 3’s central movement with ravishing transparency. The Poem of Ecstasy is heady stuff, brilliantly played.

alertness and close attention to detail that’s evident in every bar

It’s the first recording in the Oslo Philharmonic’s ongoing survey of Scriabin’s symphonies under the fiery baton of Vasily Petrenko, and together they give a gloriously opulent and fervent account [of No. 3]. There’s more mystery and wonderment in the accompanying Symphony No 4 Le Poème de l’extase. If ever a set of performances caught the weird, psychedelic world of Scriabin, it’s this one.

The performances, although recorded in a rather muddy acoustic, have the lean vigour we’ve come to expect of Petrenko from his work with the Russian repertoire at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Not all of the The Divine Poem is divine — scored for enormous forces, it’s prone to flabby repetition — but Petrenko and his Norwegian orchestra don’t make the mistake of driving it too hard.