Scriabin’s “Prometheus” & Bartók’s “Bluebeard”

Alexander Scriabin’s symphonic poem Prometheus, The Poem of Fire celebrates synesthesia and cosmic unity. Devised by San Francisco Symphony Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent, the San Francisco Symphony and Cartier present a multisensory production of Prometheus. This collaborative world premiere combines dynamic musical and light performance with olfactory curation, subsuming audiences in Scriabin’s creative vision more than a century after the piece of total art was composed.

Prometheus is paired with Béla Bartók’s bloodthirsty fairy tale Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, in which the composer reimagines Bluebeard as a tragic, yet appealing loner. Bartók’s music is pure Hungarian: all tangy modal harmonies and skipping, stomping, folk-flavored rhythms.