Julius Asal on pairing Scriabin with Scarlatti

In 2024, Julius Asal released an album that interwove works of Scriabin and Scarlatti. He stated:

…in finding a composer from another era who is totally different in style and aesthetics, then finding a new ‘room’ where they meet, I felt that perhaps they share an inner space through their miniature pieces and their quantity of detail, like small lights that appear and disappear again.

Julius Asal. Cited in: J. Duchen, “Improvisations on Scriabin and Scarlatti: Julius Asal follows his intuition”, Bachtrack, 9 August 2024, https://bachtrack.com/interview-julius-asal-scriabin-scarlatti-stage-plus-deutsche-grammophon-august-2024, (accessed 25 April 2025).


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