Pianist Garrick Ohlsson makes the case for Scriabin’s sonatas

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson is observing the 100th anniversary of Alexander Scriabin’s death. Pianist Garrick Ohlsson is observing the 100th anniversary of Alexander Scriabin’s death. Photo: Pier Andrea Morolli / Pier Andrea Morolli Photo: Pier Andrea Morolli / Pier Andrea Morolli Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Pianist Garrick Ohlsson makes the case for Scriabin’s sonatas 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

In addition to his formidable technical resources and expressive command, the pianist Garrick Ohlsson boasts a remarkably broad repertoire that includes both standard keyboard works of the past four centuries and plenty of contemporary music.

But his new recital project — observing the 100th anniversary of Scriabin’s death by programming all 10 of the composer’s sonatas — put some strain on even his prodigious ability to add music to his performing catalog.

“I’d played five of the sonatas,” he said recently, “so I figured, well, I’m halfway there. But learning the other five took some doing.

“I guess it’s in my nature to push my own limits.”

Ohlsson, 66, has lived in San Francisco for decades, but his career is international in scope, ever since his 1970 prize at the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. His recital on Monday, April 6, presented by San Francisco Performances, is the second installment in his attempt to carry the flag for a composer he thinks is underappreciated — though perhaps not surprisingly.

“I completely understand when people don’t get Scriabin or don’t like him,” he says with a garrulous chuckle. “He has such a strong flavor. And because his musical language evolved so much — from the hyper-romantic to the almost atonal — you never know exactly what you’re going to get when you see his name on a program.”

Ohlsson became an early devotee, before it even occurred to him that there was anything unusual about Scriabin’s voice.

“When I began going to Carnegie Hall as a child in the 1950s, it was during the Cold War, and the Soviet Union used to send over their artists. I heard a lot of Russian pianists, and they all tended to play a fair bunch of Scriabin.

“And as a kid, I was thrilled by this music. It just shivered my timbers, and of course Carnegie always went bonkers when they played this music. So I just assumed that Scriabin was a canonical composer and that everybody loved it.”

The truth, of course, is that Scriabin has always had a hard time getting a foothold in the repertoire. Listeners can find his music either overripe in its sensuality or too austere, depending on the phase of his career.

But for Ohlsson, those excesses are part of the composer’s charm.

“I love his sheer inspiration, and the way he has of being over the top. If he’s languorous, he’s so languorous. He never does anything by half measures.”

That intensity extends to the technical demands of Scriabin’s keyboard writing, which Ohlsson says are among the most challenging in the repertoire.

“These pieces are very difficult to play, right up there with the toughest works of Rachmaninoff or Prokofiev or Liszt. They’re not for kids to try at home without adult supervision.”

Joshua Kosman is The San Francisco Chronicle’s music critic. E-mail: jkosman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JoshuaKosman

If you go

Garrick Ohlsson: 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 6. $40-$68. SFJazz Center, 201 Franklin St., S.F. (415) 392-2545. www.performances.org.