I am interested in exploring the music of this Composer but don't know where to start. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Last edited by ferneyhoughgeliebte; 22-02-17, 08:22. -
Regarding Sorabji, Naxos have recently released a three CD compilation by Michael Habermann, which is a great starting point. I have the original label release.
I and a couple of other forum members attended a Sorabji concert a couple of years ago at Oxford University and I think you have a lot of great music ahead of you!!!
PLEASE EXCUSE THE BIG PICTURE!!!!
Last edited by ferneyhoughgeliebte; 22-02-17, 08:21. -
A Hinton should be along soon!Comment
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My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)Comment
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He's along now!Originally posted by Lordgeous View Post
40 years ago, anyone interested would have struggled to find much Alkan or any Sorabji on disc; how times have changed!
Where to start with recommendations? Well, if we're talking recommendations for those who are largely or completely unfamiliar with either composer's work, I'll leave others to find the Alkan ones and merely offer the hint to check out early ones by Ronald Smith as well as more recent ones by Marc-André Hamelin, Vincenzo Maltempo and Alessandro Deljavan and, for Sorabji, just about any recording by Jonathan Powell (of which there are quite a few with more on the way within the next year or so) who has played vastly more of the composer's piano music than anyone else - also Piano Symphony No. 5 played by Donna Amato and the ongoing survey by Fredrik Ullén of the 100 Transcendental Studies. All the Sorabji discs are on Altarus except the Ullén ones which are on BIS. If you can find Kevin Bowyer playing Organ Symphony No. 1 you will be well rewarded; it's on the long defunct label Continuum but it occasionaly pops up on Amazon.Last edited by ahinton; 12-01-16, 16:21.Comment
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The Organ Symphony #1 is available very cheaply as a download (e.g e-music) and let's not forget John Ogdon's performance on CD of 'Opus Clavicembalisticum'.Originally posted by ahinton View Post
I'm sure your recommendations are the best, but they (and my Ogdon recommendation) come up quite expensive, hence my Michael Habermann Naxos recommendation (still available at premium price on the British Music Society label).
Btw, will Altus ever revise their RRPs so that more people can enjoy the music of their wonderful rostrum of composers?Comment
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I ordered one of the Ullen discs. Thanks to all for their recommendations.Originally posted by ahinton View PostLast edited by ferneyhoughgeliebte; 22-02-17, 08:19.Comment
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I was unaware that the first organ symphony was still available that way (I wonder how legally?!)...Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
No, I could never forget Ogdon's OC, of course (especially having worked with him on it) but, even though I believe that it's now sold as 5 CDs for the price of 4 (just as the wonderful Piano Sonata No. 4 is sold as 3 for the price of 2), I'm not so sure of it as an introductory recommendation for those who don't know Sorabji (even though it was one of the earlier Sorabji CDs). So far, that monumental work has received 15 complete public performances by five pianists (one by the composer, two by John Ogdon, two by Daan Vandewalle, four by Jonathan Powell and six by Geoffrey Douglas Madge).
I suspect that the price of Altarus CDs may have something to do with the size of the company and I am not aware that it gets much more from its distributors than do other record companies other than the very large ones; distributors take their cut and then retailers take theirs. Also, Altarus tends to issue lavish productions on which no reasonable expense is spared; one has only to consider the "booklet"(!) for Ogdon's OC alone...Originally posted by Beef Oven! View Post
Oh - and "Sorabji", please - not "Sorabaji"! (still, at least that's better than "Sorabhaji", I suppose...)Last edited by ahinton; 13-01-16, 04:07.Comment
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For many years Sorabji banned public performances of his work - unsure why. Towards the end of his long life he relented and allowed a few hand-picked pianists, including John Ogden, Michael Habermann and Yonty Solomon, to perform some of his vast output. I have the Habermann Naxos set and would particularly recommend disc 2, the Nocturnes.Originally posted by ahinton View PostLast edited by ferneyhoughgeliebte; 22-02-17, 08:18.Comment
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It's not quite so simple as that. What he actually did was make it known that he did not want public performances of his work without his prior writtenconsent on the grounds that, as he put it "no performance at all is vastly better than an obscene travesty", almost certainly of the kind that he encountered in 1936 when a probably well-meaning but hapless pianist sought to essay Pars Prima of his Opus Clavicembalisticum in a recital before a London audience that, according to the late Felix Aprahamian (who was himself present), included composers Edmund Rubbra, Stanley Bate, Alan Rawsthorne, Alan Bush, Benjamin Frankel and even (though I've accessed no evidence to corroborate this) Vaughan Williams, critics/writers Frank Howes, Ernest Newman, Edwin Evans, Jack Westrup, William McNaught, Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi and Clinton Gray-Fisk, piano teachers/pedagogues Frank Merrick, Arthur Alexander and Sydney Harrison and Oriental music scholar and writer Arthur Henry Fox-Strangways; also present were composers Mervyn Vicars and the youngest of them all, Humphrey Searle (then just 20 years of age) who, more than three decades later, told me about the experience. There were no grounds upon which Sorabji could have issued (or indeed did issue) viable lawsuits against anyone who flouted his wishes in this regard (unless perhaps they were performing unpublished and previously unperformed work) and, in any event, the sheer difficulties involved in presenting most of his music in those days were in themselves as effective as any an insurance policy against such risks.Originally posted by CallMePaul View Post
Indeed - and, boy, did he need some persuading!Originally posted by CallMePaul View Post
Ogdon, please!Originally posted by CallMePaul View Post
Of Jonathan Powell's many recordings, it's hard to select preferences but, if gun at head, mine would probably be the 3-CD set of Piano Sonata No. 4 and the disc of Concerto per suonare da me solo of which the latter work was described by the composer himself with the words "if I wanted to introduce anyone to my work, I'd play that".Last edited by ahinton; 22-02-17, 12:01.Comment
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[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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The Fantasie Espagnol (with score) played by John Carey:
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The Sonata #1 (with score) played by Marc-André Hamelin:
[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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Many thanks - but could you please amend the name in the thread title to Sorabji?Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostComment
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Originally posted by ahinton View Post
Duly done - and with apologies. (Although it's all your own fault - in one of your replies to BeefO, you mentioned "Sorabhaji" and that must have got stuck in my mind. I think that you should apologise!)[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]Comment
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