Sorabji - Toccata (1920)

[ctrastevere]

I figured the audition room was sorely lacking in Sorabji postings.  

The second piece from the set that includes "In the Hothouse," which I posted a good while back. I'm fairly happy with the performance, excluding a few minor memory lapses I had along the way (memorizing this stuff is hard!). In any case, I worked on this pretty consistently for the last couple months, and figured I'd get some feedback on it.

I hope you enjoy it. Any comments welcome.

[ctrastevere]

Hmm, uploaded the wrong thing. Take 2.

[birba]

I listened to it a couple of times.  fiendishly difficult, I imagine.  I have Sorabji's transcription of the Salome final waiting for me, but don't have the courage to start "digging in"!
Anyway, you play it very well and have a complete mastery of the notes I think.  What you could do is play more emphasis on the displaced (?) accents of the chords accompanying the running 16th (?) notes.  It'll make it more exciting.  Jazz it up a bit.  (when ahinton reads this... )
But I always like it when I hear new music here.  I would never have heard of Sorabji if I hadn't joined pianostreet.com.

[ahinton]

I listened to it a couple of times.  fiendishly difficult, I imagine.  I have Sorabji's transcription of the Salome final waiting for me, but don't have the courage to start "digging in"!

Then take courage and go for it! OK, it really IS fiendishly difficult, several pages approching the end also being physically exhausting, almost like the very different Ondine but taken to the nth degree.

Anyway, you play it very well and have a complete mastery of the notes I think.

It came across rather faintly on my computer but, as far as I could tell, yes, it's pretty much there!

What you could do is play more emphasis on the displaced (?) accents of the chords accompanying the running 16th (?) notes.  It'll make it more exciting.  Jazz it up a bit.  (when ahinton reads this... )

...which he now has - he'd agree!

But I always like it when I hear new music here.  I would never have heard of Sorabji if I hadn't joined pianostreet.com.

Well, there are all manner of different routes whereby to encounter his work; I'm pleased that you happened to find this one.

Best,

Alistair

[lostinidlewonder]

This Toccata is a real rhythmic tour de force, at the moment it tends to sound like poking notes, but still very impressive playing, well done!

[ctrastevere]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I also agree with the idea of varying the rhythmic accentuation. Any other ideas on how to make it more interesting from an interpretive standpoint? I often find the Habermann recording a bit bland, and would like to avoid making the piece sound too mechanical.

Thanks again.

[schubertiad]

While the piece isn't familiar to me (in fact this is the first of Sorabji's pieces that I've heard), and it's not exactly my cup of tea, I was very impressed with your playing. How do you go about learning such a beast??

Schubertiad

[ctrastevere]

While the piece isn't familiar to me (in fact this is the first of Sorabji's pieces that I've heard), and it's not exactly my cup of tea, I was very impressed with your playing. How do you go about learning such a beast??

Schubertiad

I'm sure everyone has their own methods, but in my case I found that the only way to play the piece accurately was to memorize it. I would work on memorizing the piece system by system. Once I had practiced a system consistently enough to memorize it, playing it accurately was (in most cases) no problem. I found that there were very few sections that were particularly difficult for me to play after some practice. However, I must stress that with this piece and any other in its category of difficulty, I definitely would not have been able to play it well had I not memorized it thoroughly.

[birba]

That's interesting.  Because a lot of the big contemporary players use the music in concert.  But I'm with you.  I can never get a piece up to performance unless it's memorized first.