As he stood at the podium on the stage of Ford-Crawford Hall, David Dubal gestured his hands in a conductor-like fashion as a recording of a piano performance played. He used the music throughout his lecture to teach the audience about the Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin.
Monday’s lecture was co-sponsored by the Jacobs School of Music Lecture Series and the IU Department of Comparative Literature. The lecture was called “Commemorating the Centenary of the Death of Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915).”
Dubal is a faculty member at The Juilliard School. In addition to teaching, he is a renowned pianist, writer and broadcaster.
This was his first time visiting IU, Dubal said.
“I’m very, very pleased to be here,” Dubal said as he began the lecture. “What a campus. It’s magnificent. It’s surely better than the subways of New York City.”
Dubal focused his lecture on Scriabin’s music and his life. The lecture commemorates the 100th anniversary of his death.
Scriabin was a strange and interesting man who is not very well known, Dubal said. He described Scriabin’s music as “mystic impressionism” that is enigmatic, spiritual and thrilling.
“Those who play him well find in Scriabin almost an addiction,” Dubal said.
Dubal said Scriabin’s music conveys a sense of optimism, because he never lost hope in the human creative spirit.
Dubal also gave a brief history of Scriabin’s life. From an early age, music was an important part of Scriabin’s life, he said, and the piano became more than an inanimate object.
Dubal said Scriabin was a restless thinker who worked with a passion that defied fatigue.
The composer was also a narcissist, Dubal said, and he often referred to himself as the “real Messiah.”
“No other music but his own interested him,” Dubal said.
Dubal said Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff is an easy winner when it comes to famous pianists of the 20th century, but the lesser-known Scriabin is also an important composer.
Scriabin was multi-faceted composer, Dubal said.
“Any composer to survive 100 years after his death is an achievement,” Dubal said.
Dubal has written many critically acclaimed books about piano literature, and he won an Emmy Award for his video, “The Golden Age of Journalism.” He used excerpts from his books during the lecture.
Dubal works for several music programs for radio in New York City, and his career as a broadcast journalist has resulted in awards such as the George Foster Peabody Award for innovative broadcasting.
Audience member Hiroko Hanamura, 23, said she appreciated Dubal’s presentation.
“I really liked how he was really informative, but it was also really enjoyable,” Hanamura said.
