Sorabji,Kaikhosru / Ullen,Fredrik - 100 Transcendental Studies Nos. 72-83 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

- Composed 1940-44, Kaikhosru Sorabji's '100 Transcendental Studies' seven-hour duration makes it by far the largest collection of concert études in the repertoire. - Most are typical studies, with a single technical or structural idea being explored. - But later on Sorabji inserts pieces of much larger scale, three examples of which are on this fourth disc in Fredik Ullén's traversal of the set. - A true pioneer of this repertoire both live and on disc, Mr. Ullén has been duly acclaimed in BBC Music Magazine (Inch... textural clarity and jaw-dropping virtuosityInch) and Fono Forum (Inchstunning masteryInch).

Fredrik Ull n - Transcendental Studies [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/25/2006

By far the largest collection of concert études in the known repertoire, Kaikhosru Sorabji's set of 100 Transcendental Studies, composed between 1940 and 1944, has a total duration of more than eight hours. On five previous discs, the Swedish pianist (and neuroscientist) Fredrik Ullén has introduced the first 83 études to a wider audience, the large majority of them appearing on disc for the first time. Now, 15 years after the of the first volume comes the final instalment, a 2-disc set with the last 17 studies. In his own liner notes, Ullén describes the experience of learning and recording the collection 'From the F sharp minor of Study 1 to the F sharp minor chord concluding Study 100 traversing Sorabji's Transcendental Studies has been somewhat like joining a comet following a long eccentric orbit through pianistic outer space, and finally returning back to mother earth.' Most of the studies are typical concert études in the sense that they essentially explore a single technical or structural idea. But especially towards the end of the cycle Sorabji includes pieces that are on a much larger scale, a tendency that culminates with the two final études. Quasi fantasia (No. 99) is a hugely expanded elaboration of J.S. Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and is followed by the almost hour-long Coda-Finale, a quintuple fugue of staggering complexity. Besides the programme notes by Fredrik Ullén, the booklet includes texts by Kenneth Derus and Alistair Hinton who both knew the composer.