Scriabin called his seventh sonata ŒñWhite MassŒî, drawing attention to the mystical basis that is stamped on all his late works, including this one. He attempts here to translate into sound his ideal of a ŒñmysteryŒî Œ_ a ŒñGesamtkunstwerkŒî of artistic, theological and philosophical ideas. Its aim, as stated in his own words, is the raising up of the human spirit. No longer is the formal scaffolding of the work based principally around that of sonata form, but around the idea of Œñevolutionary developmentfrom chaos to ecstasyŒî This edition is the first to be based on the aut ograph, which is today in a private collection in the USA.?
