Always interesting to have another Sorabji review! The studies are excellently recorded(Ullen) and make good(for Sorabji) listening in my humble opinion! The longer works in this set lean toward his nocturne style which I feel include his most successful extended pieces (setting up an exotic meditative wallpaper) like Djami, Le Jardin Parfume, and Gulistan which are worth getting I think. (has anyone accidentally ordered the latter instead of Galvaston by Glenn Campbell I wonder...)
@gustavoflorio5383
23 күн бұрын
I've listened every Sorabji recording available. Mostly of his music lays in your definition. But, regarding large scale piano solo, his Fourth Piano Symphony is, by far(?), the most incredible! Still waiting, after 20 years, an official release!
@gustavoflorio5383
23 күн бұрын
Abel does a great work playing Sorabji indeed!
@goonbelly5841
2 ай бұрын
Never heard of this guy until yesterday's review so I decided to listen to snippets of this music (Toccata Seconda and Terza) on KZitem. While the music isn't annoying, it's way too long and boring for me. Kind of like Robert Simpson for the piano. I'd much rather listen to Xenakis, which I did after the Sorabji.
@franksmith541
2 ай бұрын
Xenakis and Sorabji are two completely different styles, obviously, so liking one over the other means you are more partial to that style. Sorabji's writing is pianistic, albeit very demanding, as he was an accomplished pianist in his day and understood the instrument's capabilities very well. His style stems from late Scriabin, Busoni and Roslavets - very rich, harmonically sumptuous writing. It is neo-Lisztian in its virtuosity. Usually people who like that style (pianophiles like me), like Sorabji. Xenakis' piano music is based on mathematics and is not pianistic. But I still find it interesting and Herma is one of my favorite works; it is virtuosity of a different kind.
@eduardoyoshikawa9767
2 ай бұрын
Hi Dave. If those discs were sold using your titles I bet they would actually sell more copies. :)
@paulbrower
2 ай бұрын
We can listen to opera, masses. passions, ballet scores, and oratorios of such length. We can enjoy symphonies by Bruckner and Mahler. We can listen to the late string quartets of Beethoven, Mozart's divertimento for string trio, and the two piano trios, string quintet, and octet of Schubert. We might listen to the WTK of Bach and Shostakovich's 24 preludes and fugues or Bach's entire Kunst der Fuge, but such is binge-listening. Large works can be enjoyable, but for good reason we don't find many piano sonatas longer than Beethoven's Hammerlavier. We don't reduce Tchaikovsky's three great ballet scores to solo piano for concert, do we? Of course, Tchaiovsky was a great orchestral colorist.
@gregorystanton6150
2 ай бұрын
Sorabji is all about appearance, not substance. He wrote countless articles and essays, all oozing pretension but with virtually nothing coherent to say about music or anything else - but which seem to have been conceived to perpetuate the myth of Sorabji, a misunderstood, intellectually superior genius. His music is exactly the same: overly complicated, occasionally interesting (if only mildly), but emotionally and spiritually empty. Even his notation - piano music that extends over several pairs of systems, as if the pianist is expected to sprout at least four more arms to be able to play it - is intended to impress rather than assist. I don't know what type of artist would conclude that the / = financial/professional gain, but these people are out there. I would rather listen to almost anything else.
@ntyong8069
2 ай бұрын
Except Sorabji was a composer who banned his own music for four decades and didn’t seek to have it published, which means he wasn’t trying to “impress” anybody. The fact that your comment ignores this basic biographical fact and makes no reference to concrete pieces nor offers comparisons of their performances by different musicians, says a lot about the intellectual integrity of those who diss Sorabji.
@gregorystanton6150
2 ай бұрын
@@ntyong8069 A publicity stunt that served exactly the ends I stated. You insulted my intelligence because you are insecure about your own. Rightly so.
@toothlesstoe
2 ай бұрын
I agree, his literary writing is bullshit and can be dismissed as so, but I think his musical writing is much more fascinating, although the extremely long works have lots of filler textures and serve no real purpose and could realistically be condensed and revised to something much shorter with the same overall effect being achieved. I think his best masterpiece would be Gulistān. It's not too long and not a single moment is wasted on filler notes; he states the theme in the beginning and constantly develops it until it bursts with a textural climax while remaining pianissimo throughout most of the work.
@willcwhite
2 ай бұрын
Dave, I don't think you know what a gift you are giving to the r/classical_circlejerk subreddit with these videos. Thank you!
@DavesClassicalGuide
2 ай бұрын
I guess not!
@musicboiscores
2 ай бұрын
oh we eating good from these lmao
@JamesDavidWalley
2 ай бұрын
I have to admit, I had to look up Sorabji on Qobuz to confirm he was a real composer, and not a fictional creation of yours.
@zdl1965
2 ай бұрын
Why listen to Sorabji? Why play Sorabji? Why even buy recordings of Sorabji? Because it's there.
@bbailey7818
2 ай бұрын
Was Sorabji an Alkan wannabe? He (Sorabji) reminds me of what H.G. Wells said about Henry James, "a leviathan retrieving pebbles."
@owondrousmachine
2 ай бұрын
He was made an honorary president of the Alkan Society iirc so probably
@franksmith541
2 ай бұрын
Sorabji's harmonic language stems from late Scriabin and Roslavets, though a lot more complex, obviously. It has nothing to do with Alkan, except that it is of similar (but greater) difficulty. I love Sorabji's piano and organ works very much.
@4candles
Ай бұрын
Sorabji admired Alkan's music, and included a movement in a work of his called 'Quasi Alkan' (in a nod to the older composer's excellent piano sonata). But an Alkan wannabe? I don't think so.
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