Sorabji: 100 Transcendental Studies, Nos. 84-100 / Ullen

$30.99
Label
BIS
Release Date
January 1, 2021
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      SORABJI, KAIKHOSRU
    • PERFORMER
      Fredrik Ullen
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      January 01, 2021
    • UPC
      7318590024331
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      BIS-2433
    • LABEL
      BIS
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      2
    • GENRE
      Classical
    Works ⌄

    1. No. 84. Tango habanera: Leggiero con grazia indolente

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    2. No. 85. —

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    3. No. 86. Adagietto: Legatissimo

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    4. No. 87. Studio gammatico

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    5. No. 88. —

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    6. No. 89. Chopsticks: Vivace

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    7. No. 90. —

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    8. No. 91. Volante leggiero

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    9. No. 92. Legato possibile: Velato, misterioso

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    10. No. 93. Leggiero, saltando

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    11. No. 94. Ornaments: Con fantasia

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    12. No. 95. —

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    13. No. 96. —

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    14. No. 97. —

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    15. No. 98. Staccato e vivace

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    16. No. 99. Quasi fantasia: Scorrevole

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    17. No. 100. Coda-Finale: Fuga a 5 soggetti: Parte prima a due voci: Soggetto primo

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    18. No. 100. Coda-Finale: Fuga a 5 soggetti: Secondo soggetto: à 3 voci

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    19. No. 100. Coda-Finale: Fuga a 5 soggetti: Terzo soggetto: à 4 voci

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    20. No. 100. Coda-Finale: Fuga a 5 soggetti: Quarto soggetto: à 5 voci

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    21. No. 100. Coda-Finale: Fuga a 5 soggetti: Quinto soggetto: à 6 voci

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén

    22. No. 100. Coda-Finale: Fuga a 5 soggetti: Stretto maestrale - Libero quasi cadenza con punta d'organo - Pieno: largo e maestoso, quasi Organo pieno

      Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

      Performer: Fredrik Ullén


By far the largest collection of concert études in the known repertoire, Kaikhosru Sorabji’s set of 100 Transcendental Studies, composed between 1940 and 1944, has a total duration of more than eight hours. On five previous discs, the Swedish pianist (and neuroscientist) Fredrik Ullén has introduced the first 83 études to a wider audience, the large majority of them appearing on disc for the first time. Now, 15 years after the release of the first volume comes the final instalment, a 2-disc set with the last 17 studies. In his own liner notes, Ullén describes the experience of learning and recording the collection: ‘From the F sharp minor of Study 1 to the F sharp minor chord concluding Study 100: traversing Sorabji’s Transcendental Studies has been somewhat like joining a comet following a long eccentric orbit through pianistic outer space, and finally returning back to mother earth.’ Most of the studies are typical concert études in the sense that they essentially explore a single technical or structural idea. But especially towards the end of the cycle Sorabji includes pieces that are on a much larger scale, a tendency that culminates with the two final études. Quasi fantasia (No. 99) is a hugely expanded elaboration of J.S. Bach’s Chromatic Fantasia and is followed by the almost hour-long Coda-Finale, a quintuple fugue of staggering complexity. Besides the programme notes by Fredrik Ullén, the booklet includes texts by Kenneth Derus and Alistair Hinton who both knew the composer.

REVIEW:

Listen to the very first track, where a tango rhythm quickly devolves into a series of very tricky cross-rhythms, for an idea of the challenges facing Ullén. He has surmounted them admirably, and his deliberate approach to these pieces has paid off. He gets the attractiveness of the Studies as a way into the work of Sorabji, who has been admired by many and equally often critically dismissed. Sorabji is not for everyone, but he is for more listeners here than elsewhere.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)