Kaikhosru Sorabji Fredrik Ulleacuten - Kaikhosru Sorabji 100 Transcendental Studies Nos 125 (25 tracks) +Album Reviews

Beyond Virtuosity....

Douglas M. May | 09/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an astonishing performance. The Sorabji Transcendental Studies are indeed transcendent in their rhythmic and textural demands, far surpassing in difficulty anything by Alkan or Godowsky. If this seems like a preposterous claim, I would refer you to Mr. Ullen's website on which he thoughtfully reproduces some excerpts from the actual scores. And though they nearly overflow the boundaries of what is humanly possible on a Steinway, at no time does Mr. Ullen attempt to divert attention to himself at the expense of the music. Rather, his is a modest and austere climb to this summit of pianism. All difficulties have been solved, all paradoxes untangled; the final result is as unencumbered by self-conscious virtuosity as Glen Gould's Goldberg Variations.

The music itself is magnificent and perhaps the perfect introduction to Sorabji because of each etude's compact size and dedication to specific aspects of piano technique. By imposing the limit of brevity on his baroque imagination, Sorabji arrived at some of his most magical inspirations. Those who are unfamiliar with Sorabji will find that he represents a most peculiar fusion of Busonian New Aesthetic with Szymanowskian orientalism and the all-over piano technique of Charles Ives. The music is, frankly, cerebral, but in a haunting and unique way. A listener who immerses himself in Sorabji will discover emergent patterns over time that will draw him back to the music, much as the intricate lines of Tchelitchew's interior landscapes will haunt an observant viewer.

The early studies are frequently devoted to the exploration of specific intervals such as the fourth, fifth, and sixth, but do not sound labored or academic. They share some affinities with the Debussy etudes in this regard. Of the longer studies, I should mention # 10, with its cascades of bitonal arpeggios conjuring up an image of four satanic pianists performing Chopin's Winter Wind etude simultaneously, #14 with its infinite chains of arabesques and veiled pianissimo mystery, and #23, Dolcemente scorrevole, which grows by accretion into a massive, seemingly impossible contrapuntal texture that involves every register of the keyboard.

I look forward to future installments of this series--Mr. Ullen has recorded all 100 studies, and some of the later specimens last upwards of 30 minutes. As usual with BIS, the piano sound is magnificent, close enough for overtones to make themselves heard, yet spacious enough to clarify the oversaturated conterpoint. I have no doubt that this is the most important piano recording I have heard in a long time.

"

Sorabji's Towering Transcendante

Alscribji | Washington, D.C. | 05/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This first CD of Sorabji's 100 Transcendental Etudes contains 25 exquisite studies for the piano that are performed beautifully and effectively by Fredrik Ullen. For those who are fond of Sorabji's world of sound, its vastness and highly exotic ornamental figures of an Oriental nature, then look no further. These studies not only present some of the most daunting feats for the pianist, they are also musical and imaginative. The etudes evoke moods a la Sriabin (No. 4 Scriabinesco, No. 10, and No. 13) as well as the tranquil nocturnes that recall moods a la Gulistan and Le jardin parfume(No. 14, No. 18, and No. 20). The etudes are full of Sorabjian style writing: cascading triads, asynchrony, glittering sweeping passages, glissandi, chromatic filigree, ornate undulating lines in the left hand supporting meandering melodies in the right hand, four voices played simultaneoulsy and musically, accentuated rhythms, arabesque patterns, melodic lines hovering in the background and disappearing into oblivion, and ever-changing patterns and musical ideas; in short, a treasure trove of some of Sorabji's most successful and mature (and lengthy!) works for the piano. Fredrik Ullen has the technique to not only perform these etudes convincingly but also musically. Ullen captures Sorabji at his fiendish in a very pursuasive recording that is highly recommended."

A Sorabjian jackpot

Paul J. Kohler | UT | 05/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been studying the music of Sorabji off and on for some twelve years now, and I must say that upon hearing this CD, I felt I had found the "jackpot" of the Sorabji literature. Much of K.S.S.' music is difficult to appreciate on first hearing. It's difficult to get your brain wrapped around it. This music, however, immediately convinces the listener that its composer had a powerful gift, and a unique and fascinating imagination. Mr. Ullen is one of the supreme pronents of this type of music today, and this disc is well worth any price! Very highly recommended!"

A Listening Experience of the First Order

David Keymer | Modesto CA | 02/27/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is truly astonishing music. While it echoes some of the extravagances of late Romantic music -the compositions of Liszt and Scriabin come to mind and the liner notes mention Busoni and Godowsky- it is truly sui generis. I've never heard anything like it. The whole cycle, all one hundred pieces, apparently takes seven hours to perform, and later pieces get longer and longer, including a passacaglia with one hundred variations and culminating in a quintuple fugue that takes forty-five minutes to play. The variations introduced into each piece quickly overwhelm whatever melody exists within them. What follows is, in the words of pianist Ullen in the liner notes, "evolving patterns of immense textural and rhythmic complexity [exceeding] all of his predecessors by far." The compositions are all brief: the shortest takes only one minute and nine seconds to play and the longest runs under six minutes. The album is like an exotic garden, in which every conceivable pianistic device and technique gets its trial. But to say this does not convey how beautiful these pieces are to listen to. It's just different than what other composers do. It doesn't matter: Sorabji's musical universe is so enchanting that it catches the listener up in it and sweeps him or her along, enthralled and enchanted. Back to the liner notes, the descriptions of some of the pieces may convey an impression of what makes this album so special:

9. Staccato e leggiero. A remarkably modern piece for its time [1940-44]. Both hands play staccato chords, first in perfect synchrony, later on with irregular alterations 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, Gyorgy Ligeti.

14. Tranquillamente soave. An Oriental carpet of endless, aimlessly drifting melodic lines. Sorabji's deep originality, even relative to those composers in the Western tradition he deeply admired, is clearly revealed in pieces like this: music of highly complex, ever-changing patterns that lacks any sense of drama or even inner directionality.

22. Leggiero volante e presto assai. The piece explores an interesting new device for pianistic fireworks: glissandi on chords. A quick, hazardous piece [1'24] that passes by leaving you wondering what really happened.

Let me emphasize that for all its technical brilliance, this is eminently listenable music, an experience of the first rank. I had never heard the pianist, Fredrik Ullen, before, but he plays this demanding music both brilliantly and sympathetically."

A sampler of Sorabji piano technique

Michael Schell | www.schellsburg.com | 07/05/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Back in the 1960s, to the extent that anyone in North America knew about Sorabji, it was through odd biographical entries or novelty articles (like the notorious Guinness World Records entry on Opus Clavicembalisticum) that conveyed his social eccentricity more than his compositional style. Labels like BIS and Altarus are to be commended for bringing forth enough of his music so that we can not only hear what it really sounds like, but also begin to formulate a reasonable assessment of its value and historical position.

The stereotype of Sorabji's music is that it's busy, fast, loud and atonal. I do find his music to be less gestural and more formulaic than most modernist composers, perhaps anticipating to a degree the approach of some postmodernists after WWII. Most of the Etudes are atonal, though some like #14 play with tonality in ways not too dissimilar to Berg or Hindemith (the latter in his early days). #17, with its more variegated homophonic rhythms comes as a shock after the first 16. It starts out sounding rather Prokofievian, but at its climax reminds me of Debussy's last piano etude (Pour les accords). Regardless, the characteristic Sorabji sound is there: massive numbers of notes, often two lines in the right hand (typically in similar motion) against a contrasting line in the left hand, moving largely in equal note values, often moving rapidly to extreme registers and dynamic markings.

Listening to these Studies, I find that they relate to the better-known stapes of pianistic modernism like Scriabin's Etudes or Schoenberg's Opus 11 rather like Godowsky's studies relate to the Chopin Etudes they're based on. The relationship isn't literal as in Chopin/Godowsky, but it's as though with each Transcendental Study, Sorabji takes an element of the modernist musical language and extends it to the breaking point. Godowsky isn't as essential as Chopin, and Sorabji isn't as essential as Scriabin or Schoenberg, but in both cases there's knowledge and beauty found by taking something apart and putting it back together in a new way."

Search - Kaikhosru Sorabji, Fredrik Ullén :: Kaikhosru Sorabji: 100 Transcendental Studies, Nos. 1-25

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