Scriabin's ‘Le Poème de l'extase’ is representative of everything he produced as a composer. The oversized nature of his compositions virtually overwhelms the listener. Writer Boris Pasternak confessed: “I could not listen to this music without tears”. Tchaikovsky describes much more earthly joys and pains in his fantasy overture ‘Romeo And Juliet’. Balakirev had drawn the composer's attention to Shakespeare's tragedy. In gratitude, Tchaikovsky dedicated the score to him.
