Any recordings of Sorabji performing his own pieces?

[fiasco]

The more I hear, the more interested I become.  I was wondering if 1)  There are any recordings available of Sorabji himself performing his own works, or anyone else's for that matter; 2) What a good disc would be to buy as a solid introduction to a wide range of his music; 3) I'd like to hear the OC - are there midis available, or should I buy Odgen's, or Madge's, or wait for the release of Powell's?

[Etude]

1)  There do exist tapes of his playing, but these are not publicly distributed. 

2)  Buy Habermann's recording:  "Sorabji:  Legendary Works for Piano."  It contains, on the first disc, a selection of early works by the composer eg.  Fantasie Espagnole, and the Trois Pastiches.  The second disc contains the three nocturnes:  "Le Jardin Parfumé, Djami, and Gulistan".  The third is titled 'Assertive Works'.  This CD also includes the first two movements of Opus Clavicembalisticum.  The only bad point is the piano has a really horrible tone, particularly on CD1.

3)  If you are desperate to hear a recording get the Ogdon.  Stay well clear of GDM's recording.  Your best bet is to wait until Jonathan Powell's eventual recording.  I wouldn't advise listening to either currently available recordings of the OC until you're completely familiar with his musical style. 

[ahinton]

"Etude" has answered your questions pretty thoroughly and I would endorse thse answers, except to say that ther are quite a few other recordings available of other Sorabji works - not all long ones by any means; may I accordingly suggest that anyone interested emails me at
[email protected]
and I will, by return, send by email information about all the available recordings of Sorabji's works, as well as details of how to get his scores and literary writings.

Best,

Alistair

[iumonito]

For example, Powell's Sonata IV.

[notturno]

2)  Buy Habermann's recording:  "Sorabji:  Legendary Works for Piano."  It contains, on the first disc, a selection of early works by the composer eg.  Fantasie Espagnole, and the Trois Pastiches.  The second disc contains the three nocturnes:  "Le Jardin Parfumé, Djami, and Gulistan".  The third is titled 'Assertive Works'.  This CD also includes the first two movements of Opus Clavicembalisticum.  The only bad point is the piano has a really horrible tone, particularly on CD1.

I agree that Habermann's performances are the best, so far.  There is an out of print
disk entitled "A Legend in His Own Time."  (No doubt, some will call it a Legend in his own mind).

Anyway, it also contains the first two movements of the Opus Clavicembalisticum and the performance is vastly superior to Madges and Ogdens IMO.  There's some used copies on Amazon at:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009XG8SQ/qid=1138745678/sr=1-19/ref=sr_1_19/103-6795863-5189423?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=5174
It's one of my favorite disks.

I'm glad to see that the keeper of the archive is on the Forum.


Joseph

[JCarey]

I think that Habermann is a decent pianist, but his recordings of Fantaisie Espagnole and Le Jardin Parfume are certainly not the best I've heard. Get Amato's recording of FE and Solomon's LJP.