SORABJI: NEW FILM DOCUMENTARY / FORTHCOMING PERFORMANCES

[ahinton]

Pianist Jonathan Powell will be touring what is still Sorabji’s most famous work, Opus Clavicembalisticum, this year. To date, six performances have been confirmed, as follows:

050517 Brighton, UK: St. Michael’s Church

090517 London, UK: Rosslyn Hill Chapel

130517 Oxford, UK: Jacqueline du Pré Music Building

011017 Karlsruhe, Germany: Musentempel

061017 Glasgow, Scotland: Concert Hall, University of Glasgow

251017 Brno, Czechia: Concert hall JAMU (Janáček Academy)

Other dates and venues are in the pipeline.

This seminal work will never have received so many performances within a single year!

Best,

Alistair

[lostinidlewonder]

That's a marathon, I think my butt would be rather sore at the end of attending that concert.

What about the documentary??

[ahinton]

That's a marathon, I think my butt would be rather sore at the end of attending that concert.

What about the documentary??

Apologies; that part seems to have been missed in the post. I'll rectify that now.


Organist Kevin Bowyer recently gave the US première of Sorabji’s Organ Symphony No. 2 in University of Iowa where he had been invited to inaugurate its concert hall’s new Klais organ following a disastrous flood in 2008 that destroyed the venue and its previous organ. Kevin’s performance of this massive three movement work, more than eight hours in duration, was received with great enthusiasm.

Kevin devoted thousands of hours over many years to the preparation of the world première that he gave in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2010. He has since created magnificent typeset critical editions of all three Sorabji organ symphonies, of which copies are available from The Sorabji Archive (see www.sorabji-archive.co.uk ), along with all of Sorabji’s other scores and literary writings,.

A crowd-funded film documentary about the organ symphonies project, with especial reference to the second symphony, is being made in Iowa, of which details and a link may be found on the Sorabji Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KaikhosruSh...86688958099556 ; to quote:

“A remarkable story rich with cinematic potential: the deluge of 2008, the effort to rebuild, the musical palace that rose forth, the remarkable organ placed at its heart, the magician (Kevin Bowyer) called upon to give it life, and the 8 1/2 hour Sorabjian incantation.

Please consider making a contribution to help assist in the funding effort to produce this film:

Sorabji in Iowa: A documentary

Help GOLDrush raise $8,000 for the project: Sorabji in Iowa: A documentary. Your gift will make a difference!”

The link to donate is goldrush.uiowa.edu . So far, more than 50% of the required sum has been raised. Do please give generously towards this historic project!


Best,

Alistair

[cuberdrift]

So am I correct if, in Liszt's day, his "Transcendental Etudes" were the "Opus Clavicembalisticum" at that time?

But then now every Asian 4-year old plays them.

Maybe in the future, every Asian 4-year old will also play the OC. 

[sordel]

So am I correct if, in Liszt's day, his "Transcendental Etudes" were the "Opus Clavicembalisticum" at that time?

But then now every Asian 4-year old plays them.

Maybe in the future, every Asian 4-year old will also play the OC. 

I'm confident that even in the future there will be some Asian 4-year olds who can play neither piece!

[ahinton]

I'm confident that even in the future there will be some Asian 4-year olds who can play neither piece!

Oddly enough, you might just be right about that!

Seriously, though, for more than half a century, only one pianist performed OC in public; its composer, in 1930. Since then Geoffrey Douglas Madge has played it six times (1981-2003), Daan Vandewalle three times (2009-2016), John Ogdon twice (1988) and Jonathan Powell six times - and that's it, although Jonathan plays it again tomorrow (Jaqueline du Pré Music Building, Oxford, commencing 2.30 p.m.) and has four more performance of it lined up for this coming October/November with a possible further two (and maybe some more next year). At this rate, it will become standard repertoire before you know it!

When Geoffrey first played it, he had the benefit of the far from error free publication and a copy of the manuscript as source material from which to work; however, when John recorded it, a copy of the proofs for publication was also available. Before Powell first performed it, the composer's "Working Copy" publication had been donated to The Sorabji Archive; this has many annotations and corrections in the composer's hand and was a great help in ironing out some textual issues.

For his performances this year and henceforward, however, Jonathan has co-ordinated a team of editors to prepare a brand new typeset edition; this is now nearing completion and will soon become available from The Sorabji Archive. The editors are Lukas Huisman (who has recorded Sorabji's Symphonic Nocturne and performed several parts of OC), Abel Sánchez-Aguilera (who has made typeset editions of the first and third of Sorabji's piano symphonies), Frazer Jarvis (who has edited several Sorabji scores and caretakes The Sorabji Archive's website) and Jonathan himself. This will be "the" text of the work from here on in.

Was OC the Liszt Transcendental Studies of its day? Not really; that accolade might more appropriately be accorded to Sorabji's own cycle of 100 Transcendental Studies (1940-44) which Fredrik Ullén is nearing the end of his project to record (5 CDs down and 2 more to go). That said, there can be no doubt that the virtuosic demands that many of Sorabji's piano works make upon those pianists who play them are greater than almost anyone else's and, in that sense, those pieces could be said to occupy a position in the canon analogous not only to Liszt but also Alkan in the 19th century buit also Godowsky in the early 20th.

Best,

Alistair