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Sorabji: 100 Transcendental Studies Vol 1 - Nos 1-25 / Fredrik Ullen

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Details

Composer
SORABJI, KAIKHOSRU
Artist
Fredrik, Ullen
Format
CD
Label
BIS
Released
Jan 01, 2006
Catalog #
BIS-CD-1373
UPC
7318590013731

About



SORABJI 100 Transcendental Studies: Nos. 1?25 ? Fredrik Ullén (pn) ? BIS CD-1373 (71:11)


?Our highest insights must?and should?sound like follies and sometimes like crimes when they are heard without permission by those who are not predisposed and predestined for them? Nietzsche notes in Beyond Good and Evil , 30. Yes?and like drunkenness, mania, delirium, ferocity, black magic, malice?seduction, if one is a composer of startling originality. Fredrik Ullén herewith joins the small band of ?predisposed and predestined? pianistic supermen who have opened the adytum on Sorabji?s hermetic soundscapes?Marc-André Hamelin, John Ogdon, Geoffrey Douglas Madge, Michael Habermann, Kevin Bowyer, Jonathan Powell?casting up fragments of his stupendous, visionary ?uvre compellingly before us. For Hamelin, that?s true in a practical sense as well?Ullén thanks him, with Simon Abrahams and Alexander Abercrobie, for editing the Studies because ?Sorabji?s manuscripts, while calligraphically beautiful, are in general not readable enough to be useful for the performer.?


This first installment of the 100 Transcendental Studies , composed over 1940?44, suggests a more or less systematically pithy inventory of oddments comprising the Sorabji manner and its technical means, most playing a minute or two, the longest just under six. If music is, in an essential sense, for musicians, and the pleasure non-musicians derive from it a happy consequence, this relation of music to a putative audience is raised to a power in Sorabji: Busoni remarked to Bernard van Dieren?composers Sorabji admired intensely and lovingly eulogized??We must make the texture of our music such that no amateur can touch it.? The ?texture? of Sorabji?s music is such that even the well-trained professional may suffocate in it. The point is not that Sorabji is difficult to play and we?re obliged to applaud those who can bring his pieces off, but that his fantastication is such that few listeners possess the apperceptive mass?the background of associations and perceptions with which his music is in dialogue?to grasp it. For instance, the way Sorabji simply sidestepped the ?Tonal oder Atonal? obsession of his time with the sovereign caress of 10 fingers on a keyboard demonstrates that there is a richly substantial world elsewhere. Sorabji?s music does, indeed, possess sensuous appeal?cheek-by-jowl with intentionally rebarbative imprecations. Ullén?s indispensable annotations prompt the ear:


4. (Scriabinesco) Soave e con tenerezza nostalgica is an arabesque and a loving meditation on Scriabin?s B major étude, Op. 8, No. 4. There are some interesting polymetric experiments in the later section.


6. (untitled) The 100 Transcendental Studies contain études in parallel lines for each possible interval. This is the first one in seconds with rich use of 3:4 polyrhythms. A scintillating will-o?-the-wisp étude in the romantic tradition.


9. Staccato e leggiero . A remarkably modern piece for its time. Both hands play staccato chords, first in perfect asynchrony, later on with irregular alternations between the hands. Frequently Sorabji has one hand play only on white keys and the other only on black keys, a device used much later by, for example, György Ligeti.


20. Con fantasia . One of Sorabji?s refined, mysterious nocturnes . . .


22. Leggiero volante e presto assai . The piece explores an interesting new device for pianistic fireworks: glissandi on chords. A quick hazardous piece that passes by leaving you wondering what really happened.


For those of a logical or mathematical bent, the philosopher Kenneth Derus glosses Sorabji with an exploration of the metaphysics of memory reminiscent of Alfred North Whitehead at his most punctilious. And that?s to say that if you?ve read this far, you are either a Sorabji insider?to whom this will be sine qua non ?or a candidate for initiation. Sound is closely detailed and immediate?uncramped?with neither ambience nor reverberance.


FANFARE: Adrian Corleonis

Tracklist 25 tracks

  1. 1 No. 1: Mouvemente 01:50
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1: Mouvemente
    Duration
    01:50
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  2. 2 No. 2: Vivace e leggiero 01:09
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2: Vivace e leggiero
    Duration
    01:09
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  3. 3 No. 3: — 04:17
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 3: —
    Duration
    04:17
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  4. 4 No. 4: (Scriabinesco) 02:53
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 4: (Scriabinesco)
    Duration
    02:53
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  5. 5 No. 5: Staccato e leggiero 01:24
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 5: Staccato e leggiero
    Duration
    01:24
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  6. 6 No. 6: — 01:37
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 6: —
    Duration
    01:37
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  7. 7 No. 7: Leggiero abbastanza 01:07
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 7: Leggiero abbastanza
    Duration
    01:07
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  8. 8 No. 8: — 01:56
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 8: —
    Duration
    01:56
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  9. 9 No. 9: Staccato e leggiero 00:58
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 9: Staccato e leggiero
    Duration
    00:58
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  10. 10 No. 10: Con brio ed impeto - Volante 03:09
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 10: Con brio ed impeto - Volante
    Duration
    03:09
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  11. 11 No. 11: (Animato abbastanza) 01:37
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 11: (Animato abbastanza)
    Duration
    01:37
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  12. 12 No. 12: Leggiero quasi 'saltando' 01:44
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 12: Leggiero quasi 'saltando'
    Duration
    01:44
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  13. 13 No. 13: — 03:31
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 13: —
    Duration
    03:31
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  14. 14 No. 14: Tranquillamente soave 04:35
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 14: Tranquillamente soave
    Duration
    04:35
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  15. 15 No. 15 — 01:40
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 15 —
    Duration
    01:40
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  16. 16 No. 16: — 02:43
    Track
    16
    Title
    No. 16: —
    Duration
    02:43
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  17. 17 No. 17: Molto accentato 01:56
    Track
    17
    Title
    No. 17: Molto accentato
    Duration
    01:56
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  18. 18 No. 18: Liscio. Tranquillamente scorrevole 05:15
    Track
    18
    Title
    No. 18: Liscio. Tranquillamente scorrevole
    Duration
    05:15
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  19. 19 No. 19: Saltando e leggiero 02:12
    Track
    19
    Title
    No. 19: Saltando e leggiero
    Duration
    02:12
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  20. 20 No. 20: Con fantasia 05:24
    Track
    20
    Title
    No. 20: Con fantasia
    Duration
    05:24
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  21. 21 No. 21: Con eleganza e disinvoltura 04:37
    Track
    21
    Title
    No. 21: Con eleganza e disinvoltura
    Duration
    04:37
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  22. 22 No. 22: Leggiero volante e presto assai 01:24
    Track
    22
    Title
    No. 22: Leggiero volante e presto assai
    Duration
    01:24
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  23. 23 No. 23: Dolcemente scorrevole 04:00
    Track
    23
    Title
    No. 23: Dolcemente scorrevole
    Duration
    04:00
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  24. 24 No. 24: Con fantasia e grazia 05:40
    Track
    24
    Title
    No. 24: Con fantasia e grazia
    Duration
    05:40
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén
  25. 25 No. 25: Vivace e secco 02:42
    Track
    25
    Title
    No. 25: Vivace e secco
    Duration
    02:42
    Composer
    Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    Performer
    Fredrik Ullén