Interest in Sorabji has picked up considerably over the past several years, so that a wider variety of information is available. Sorabji wrote long and difficult music, primarily for piano solo. His extensive corpus of mature music is highly contrapuntal and tonally centered within a structured chromaticism. He has also been famous for various pronouncements and criticisms, and the entire situation serves to make a fascinating picture.
Sorabji's music has been called the most interesting contrapuntal keyboard music since Bach's, and I am inclined to agree. Of course its strengths can also be its weaknesses, in that fugal themes are treated in 5- & 7-beat rhythms and the textures are usually very dense. It requires some extreme physical dexterity, perhaps permanently marginalizing its appreciation, but aside from this it is clearly one of the great pianistic outputs. Sorabji's exploration of texture is almost unparalleled, although perhaps comparable to Messiaen or Nancarrow.
Sorabji's most famous work is the huge Opus Clavicembalisticum, one of his earliest (self-designated) mature works. In many ways, it is a massive elaboration and invigoration of Busoni's ideas in the Fantasia Contrappuntistica, and that work serves as a necessary introduction. The 4CD recording of O.C. by John Ogdon is quite an achievement (his recording of Busoni's F.C. is also recommended), although one can hardly hope for perfection on an undertaking of this scale. Readers interested in Sorabji will simply have to listen to this set at some point; it also comes with extensive and informative notes:
The only other major work by Sorabji to be recorded is the Organ Symphony No. 1 on the Continuum label. This is Sorabji's self-designated first mature work, but it is much stiffer than Opus Clavicemabalisticum and the performance doesn't really help.
None of the other recordings is as compelling, however there is a growing catalog of pieces on the Altarus label as well as now a few recordings by Michael Habermann (who pioneered Sorabji performances) on various labels. All of these pieces are of relatively smaller scope, often in a nocturne style. A nice survey of this style:
The featured piece here is Gulistan (1940) which is basically Sorabji's summation in the nocturne style. While not as contrapuntally dense, these pieces all show a fascinating thematic treatment.
There are many other remarks which could be made here, but I am content with the introductory remarks for now. Perhaps a new recording of a major work will inspire me.
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Todd M. McComb Updated: 17 September 1998