Skriabin was famous for seeing, feeling and associating colours with sounds. Liszt was one of the first Impressionist-minded composers who loved painting with tones. These colour effects are perceivable in all three pieces.

In the first part of the concert, we can meet a young, very gifted young man in love, Alexander Scriabin, who wrote his Etude in C-sharp major at the age of 15; yet, it turned out to be one of his most popular pieces, which was later transcribed for a symphony orchestra too. He composed his only piano concerto – and first symphonic work –  when he was 24, in an exceptional hurry to complete it before his wedding. As his young bride was a pianist herself,  Scriabin's love for her probably left its mark in this lyrical concerto. In the second concert half, the audience can hear a monumental symphonic poem inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. Hell is evoked in the first movement with the apocalypse of fleeing from death and the tragedy of cursed love. In the second movement, purgatory is recalled, followed uninterrupted by a translucent Magnificat for a women's choir. Originally, Liszt wished to compose heaven into his music, but he was dissuaded by Wagner, so the end suggests a somewhat ethereal closure.