Sorabji

sorabji.com: Obscure Classical Composers: Sorabji
THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).
By Sorabji on Tuesday, December 30, 1997 - 10:58 pm:
    I am listening to Le Jardin Parfumé, by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji.

    Most of the music of Sorabji which I have is on tape, but I bought this Yonty Solomon the other day at the Virgin Super Store for $12.99.

    I've hesitated buying it for years because it is a single-work CD, and somehow I feel ripped of even though it is cheaper than a full-length CD.

    It is atmospheric as anything. Can't really distinguish a melody. Very sexy, though. Sounds like a jazz improvisor who knows all the chords but can't find a tune.
By R.C. on Tuesday, December 30, 1997 - 11:17 pm:
    Sorabji,

    So make a RealAudio & let us hear a little of it! (C'mon, ASCAP will never find out -- he's too obscure!) The stuff at the link you turned me onto was wildly complex but far from sexy. And this place is named for the guy -- ya gotta have at least a little of his music here!

By Curious sofa on Tuesday, December 30, 1997 - 11:52 pm:
    I suppose you've already looked into getting the rights to perform a bit yourself...
By Jicotea on Wednesday, December 31, 1997 - 08:59 pm:
    Unfortunately Yonty Solomon doesn't have the chops. Even in "simpler" music he plays like a pig.
By Jicotea on Wednesday, December 31, 1997 - 09:01 pm:
    I apologize for the libel upon the noble and historically nourishing porcine race. But I've wanted to use that phrase for years, and my editor wouldn't let me. And don't come back at me with trayf.
By Jicotea on Wednesday, December 31, 1997 - 09:20 pm:
    It has been bruited about that Sorabji's birth name was Leon Dudley. In 1940 he forbade the public performance of his music. Much later he grudgingly gave two pianists permission to play it (Michael Habermann and, ahem, Yonty Solomon.
By Sorabji on Wednesday, December 31, 1997 - 09:37 pm:
    And, ahem, John Ogden)

    Who recorded the composer's OC to high, if fleeting critical acclaim.

    It was that Slonimski guy (the guy who played Chopin études with oranges) who spread the word that Sorabji's real name was Dudley. Who knows what about Slonimski? Once a musicologist passes 90 s/he can say any goddam thing about anybody and not have to prove it.

    I am trying (and failing) to scan this unusual picture of Sorabji at the piano with the pianist Yonty Solomon supplicant at the composer's knees. Sorabji is even smiling. It is so unusual.

    Yonty had not the chops for Sorabji's endless works. Neither did Habermann, nor did Sorabji himself. Wasn't that the point?

    I'm going back to my ivory tower for the night. Harumph.

    I *have* looked into performing music of Sorabji, and in fact I have performed music of Sorabji. It's no big deal. The shorter pieces are accessible and even kids' stuff.


    buh-buh-booo..
By Jicotea on Wednesday, December 31, 1997 - 10:00 pm:
    (shouting up at Ivory Tower)
    Happy New Year, Mark!
By R.C. on Wednesday, December 31, 1997 - 10:01 pm:
    If you play Sorabji, then POST SORABJI HERE! C'mon -- I'm a classical cretin. I need the cultural exposure
By HA on Thursday, January 1, 1998 - 02:51 am:
    HABERMANN KICKS YOUR ASS
By Jicotea on Thursday, January 1, 1998 - 10:40 am:
    Thanks, Michael.
By Mantra on Thursday, January 1, 1998 - 12:06 pm:
    "Scriabin"
By Jicotea on Thursday, January 1, 1998 - 01:24 pm:
    Not obscure enough. Not obscure at all.
    "Roslavetz"

    Hey, Mark! Nik. Slonimsky was only in his 50s when he started the Leon Dudley canard.

    ***dudley.com.***

    think about it
By Sorabji on Thursday, January 1, 1998 - 01:41 pm:
    Scriabin is a rock star compared to the likes of Roslavets/Lourié/Mosolov.
By Sorabji on Thursday, January 1, 1998 - 01:48 pm:
By R.C. on Thursday, January 1, 1998 - 02:50 pm:
    $13.41 for LeJardin Parfume? Well, at $12.99, you got a bargin! But alas, no audiofiles at that site. And thanks for explaining how to do links. Now, how do I do the accent marks over the letter? And those little circumflex thingees that go under the c? (Maybe you should have an HTML For Dummies page.)
By R.C. on Friday, January 2, 1998 - 07:42 pm:
    Sorabji -- If MOSOLOV is so obscure, how come he's been recorded on ECM?

    ECM Records: Alexandr Mosolov

    http://www.ecmrecords.com/ecm/recordings/1569.html

    [If you download the Sonata of Piano #2, skip the 'high quality' & opt for the 'low'. The 'high quality' took 40 min. to download & it's only 60 sec. long.]
By R.C. on Friday, January 2, 1998 - 08:00 pm:
    (Okay, we shall try the link thing gain...)
    Can anyone tell me where I can download a Midi player to listen to these files:

    Scriabin Midi Page

    If so, let me know:
    R.C.'s e-mail address

    [YES ! Got the loud colors & the underscore & evrahthang! This calls for a drink!]
By Schissel on Tuesday, January 20, 1998 - 12:54 pm:
    Sorabji- a favorite of mine- could be described inaccurately as having combined an "Eastern" conception of complicated melody with a "Western" conception of complicated harmony. I .haven't. heard Le Jardin Parfume- I intend to- but all of his music I have heard has melody which is, unsurprisingly, very "wandering"-apparently. (I think that actually it knows .precisely. where it's going.) The nocturne, "Gulistan", recorded on an Elan CD by Michael Habermann, is an excellent example of his muse. But I really want to hear that sym. 3 "Jami", and the late piano symphonies...
    -Eric Schissel
By Golden Boy on Friday, January 23, 1998 - 09:15 am:
    Beidrich Smetana...Ma Vlast. "My fatherland" most recognizable piece and my personal favorite Die Moldau...very moving and powerful...anyone heard of it?
By Jicotea on Saturday, January 24, 1998 - 03:43 pm:
    Everybody who's anybody has heard of it.
    Knockout piece. You posting in from Praha?
By Christopher Berg temporarily of Chapel Hill NC on Sunday, January 25, 1998 - 10:46 am:
    Must say, Sorabji (and how very presumptious of you to take that near-holy name upon yourself), that your statement about ANY Sorabji being kidstuff is beyond absurd (but no doubt you know that, if you've played it). Also (and this perplexes me more, unless you are being, for some unknown reason, purposely vicious) Haberman's recordings are 'way beyond respectable -- in fact are models of both accuracy and élan (and pardon me for sounding like a critic). Comparing, for instance, MH's recording of the opening of the OPUS CLAV... with Ogdon's (brilliant but wildly inaccurate -- and the piano's out of tune to boot) and Madge's (stodgy but well-intentioned) -- well, MH's virtues are quite obvious. To move on from critical cavilling (which is NOT my metier)...
    At present, I am studying (with intention to perform) a Sorabji Piano Quintet (from 1920) -- looks like about an hour long (continuous), and somewhat MORE in the line of "kidstuff" than most of his work (i.e. the piano part is basically playable).
    I live in NYC but temporarily (till March) in North Carolina, but (despite my cavils above) hope to communicate with you more directly on my return, Mark Thomas.
    Until then -- INTERESTING site indeed.
    TENTENDER@hotmail.com
By Jicotea on Sunday, January 25, 1998 - 11:16 am:
    O Lord, another cultist! That piano quintet is a _chunk_! With all kinds rhythmic cycles going on that you can hear best if you are into Indian music. Good luck with it, Christopher. I hope you are ready to ride roughshod over your string players, whoever they may be.

    (The quintet score had to be printed, I recall, in a "landscape" format to accommodate the otherwise impossible page turns. And its still highly inconvenient.)

    I agree with you re Habermann. But there is some (relatively) simple Sorabji.
By Sorabji on Sunday, January 25, 1998 - 11:43 pm:
    Well I don't know where the Chunks fit in to all this, but Sorabji's Frammenti Afforistici (I can't be spelling that right) are throw-away pieces in every possible meaning of the term. I played one or two or three thousand of them a couple of years ago and can not imagine that even Milhaud could have produced more thorough mediocrity. even The Hothouse is throw-away Debussy. it is only those beefy chunks, i mean monstrosities that get all the damn attention and further the legend that even The Composer had to wrap sheets around himself after the performance of even one of his burly, hot-chested manly scores.
By Christopher Berg on Monday, January 26, 1998 - 08:55 am:
    Sorabji, I fear your respect for your namesake is not adequate (forgive me for hero worship, of which I am surely guilty -- but this guy was UNIQUE!). I know not the Frammenti, but HOTHOUSE is a beautiful piece (and have you noticed how often Sorabji uses the "most beautiful chord" that Al Berg (we may have thought) "invented" for LULU? -- it's prominent in HH.) I will grant you (and I had forgotten it) that it IS a very easy piece (no harder than even the easiest Debussy).

    Jicotea: I am MOST interested in your analysis about "rhythmic cycles" in Quintet -- which (since I cannot play the piece anywhere near up 2 speed yet) I certainly cannot HEAR. Can you feed me some info on specifics of this? Thanks...
By Sorabji on Monday, January 26, 1998 - 10:29 am:
    Ah, you take my sarcasm too seriously. My respect for Sorabji is real, I just have a hard time with the whole reverential treatment of composers and musicians.

    In college I spent days and days and days listening to the OC over and over and over, and at some point I was in a correspondence of sorts with the archives in England. The arrival of Ogdon's OC and his late recording of the Busoni Fantasia Contrapuntistica were major events for me.

    After I played a Sorabji piece or two in New York I became friendly with Don Garvelmann who might, if I could lure him into this website, tell some highly interesting stories about the composer.
By Jicotea on Tuesday, January 27, 1998 - 12:03 am:
    Christopher: I haven't seen the score in 35 years. Tried to get a NY performance by cozening some very good freelancers, but after one desultory read-through, every man jack of them scattered like chickens. The occasion was not productive of any good impression of the music.
    The "cycles" were perceived not by me but by the pianist in the case (and the most enthusiastic participant) who has long since been translated to another plane (at best). My copy of the score went west (or possibly south) with him.
    I do recall having had pointed out to something truly hairy in rhythmic terms, but no details come immediately to mind.
By Christopher Berg on Tuesday, January 27, 1998 - 10:32 am:
    I am not surprised to hear of the defection of string players (whose parts, nonetheless, are terribly easy by comparison to the pianist's). And that, of course, is the main problem I am facing. I know some good players, but the "free-lance" mentality makes rehearsing a piece which will require (probably) 100 hours of rehearsal (more?) very difficult indeed without a lot of funding. Frankly, however, funding CANNOT be the crucial issue or all is lost. So: if anybody out there knows some string players (who live in New York City) with the capability (even) of becoming COMMITTED, please let me know (via e-mail at tentender@hotmail.com).

    This to Sorabji: (tongue in cheek): I accept your apology. Yes, Ogdon is amazing, isn't he. If only they'd tuned the piano for the O.C. recording. It really gets excruciating at times. Have you ever seen the BBC film VIRTUOSO, with Alfred Molina playing Ogdon. It's devastating, and very, very well done. (One of the characters is meant to be, I think, Ronald Stevenson.)

    I hope to invite you both (and all others) to a performance of the Sorabji Quintet in the fall.

    But please: STRING PLAYERS??? HELP!
By Sorabji on Wednesday, January 28, 1998 - 11:12 pm:
    Uh, that was not exactly meant as an apology... But whatever. My head hurts too much right now to think about Sorabji or much of anything.

    Was reminded last night of my passing interest in José Vianna Da Motta. Maybe he deserves another thread in this forum..
By Jicotea on Thursday, January 29, 1998 - 08:57 am:
    As a composer? As a pianist, he's long out of the picture, though he left a couple of interesting Busoni recordings. Of the circle of professionals around Busoni, this Portuguese musician is one of the most interesting people.
By C Berg on Friday, January 30, 1998 - 10:07 am:
    Sorabji, I was joking about the apology. That's why my tongue was in my cheek. But I accept your non-apology anyway.
    I guess you guys don't know any string players? too bad...
By Sorabji on Friday, January 30, 1998 - 10:21 am:
    I knew a string-player once who offered me $500 to lie for him and say that he and I had toured the country playing all the Bethoven Violin Sonatas. For $500 he could put my name on his resumé and I would deal with the outside possibility that someone might call me at any time over the next however many years to verify that we had in fact had this ambitious concert tour.

    I refused, and never saw him again.

    And no, I don't know any string players offhand, but could keep eyes and ears open.
By Jicotea on Friday, January 30, 1998 - 06:32 pm:
    I know LOTS of string players, but as they say in Kosher restaurants when you try to order pcha,
    "You wouldn't like it."
    I will fish around among the better NYC freelancers. Is a recording a possibility? I need bait.
By R.C. on Saturday, January 31, 1998 - 12:08 am:
    Surely there must be a BBS or website where musicians in NY can post their resumes & advertise for people to jam with (or whatever you classical types call it).
By C. Berg on Saturday, January 31, 1998 - 10:13 am:
    How could it be I posted a message yesterday and it's not up? Well ... it said -- yes, I know, Srabji, that that was not exactly an apology -- that's why my tongue was in my cheek (ancient signifier for sarcasm -- no longer much in use, apparently).
    And I lamented the lack of response from you and Jicotea about string players.
    And that's what I did yesterday.
By C. Berg on Thursday, February 5, 1998 - 11:30 pm:
    Have any (either?) of you had the distinctly odd (and mostly, I regret to say, unpleasant) experience of reading Sorabji's two books of music criticism. They are, I must say, disappointing -- stylistically bombastic (well, perhaps I should have expected this -- and perhaps I have a greater taste for musical bombasticism than I thought) and filled with very odd opinions (he rails against, of all things, the Ravel G Major Piano Concerto -- as benign a work as I can imagine) -- though not without a great deal of historic prescience (particularly re: Mahler's future). But prescience does not make up for the beating one suffers while reading. Too bad. Though he's probably much more acute a listener than Virgil Thomson, his verbal approach is (comparatively) something of an abomination.
By Jicotea on Friday, February 6, 1998 - 09:40 pm:
    As I've probably said before, Sorabji's verbal specialty was invective. Much of it seems driven by something approaching jealousy. Esthetically, he seems placeable somewhere close to the turn-of-the-century Frankfurt School, which included Cyril Scott and Percy Grainger, and which adored Grieg and (yech) Frederick Delius...

    That Ravel concerto...benign?...hardly. I hear in it, or read into it, irony, foreboding, even menace. Yes, I mean the G major, the two-hander, with its superficial reflections of then-current jazz and pop. The left-hand cto is even fuller of these elements.
By C. Berg on Saturday, February 7, 1998 - 10:40 am:
    A brief one, only to express complete horror at "(yech) Frederick Delius," who, if only for one or two pieces ("Paris," "Appalachia," "Summer Night on the River") is on MY personal A-list.

    I have never heard a single one of his pieces live in America (or anywhere else for that matter), and I've been looking to for about thirty years.

    Benign was perhaps not exact -- but, I don't think that piece (Ravel in G) has much menace at all -- just lots of energy. The left-hander yes, but this one -- I don't see it.
By Jicotea on Saturday, February 7, 1998 - 11:36 am:
    Sorry about the (yech). Delius is on my z-minus list, in Hell with Cyril Scott. As for what's to be _felt_ in the two Ravel concertos, that's so subjective an, er, subject that maybe we shouldn't chase electrons around with it. Let it suffice to say I adore them both, and most other music by Maurice R.
By Sorabji on Saturday, February 7, 1998 - 06:28 pm:
    Mention of Sorabji's invective-filled glossolalia along with Ravel's "menacing" G Major concerto reminds me of the essay Sorabji wrote about the black humor of the finale to Beethoven's 7th. I have to admit to having never thought of that music in such a way, but maybe Sorabji had something there.

    When I think of black humor in music I think mostly of Mahler and maybe Alkan.

    But that finale to Beethoven 7 is usually performed as such upbeat, heroic music. I wonder how it would sound had Sorabji himself conducted it.

    There is, somewhere out on the net, an extremely well-done midi arrangement of Ravel's G Major Concerto, which is also one of my all-time favorite pieces. That and maybe the Saint-Saens Intro/Rondo.

    Delius turned into a senile monster in his old age, as I remember reading. Growing up in Florida, though, I was always intrigued by any composer who would write a "Florida" suite.

    Sorabji also had a lot of really pissed off things to say about those harmlessly occult essays by Cyril Scott in which Scott talks about Devas and Adepts haunting the souls and influencing the works of great composers.

    Sorabji's manner of attack really does make me wonder what he had to be so defensive about. Maybe it was the fact that he never had to earn a living. He would have had a home on Usenet.

    A psychologicasl analysis of Sorabji's writings might be pretty interesting. I read such an analysis once of Charles Ives' writings; all I remember of the "analysis" is a section in which the indications he wrote into his scores were taken to task for possibly indicating repressed homosexuality. In some of his scores he wrote stuff like "Don't play this like a sissy-boy." That's the only example I can think of right now, but it was an interesting approach.
By Jicotea on Saturday, February 7, 1998 - 07:01 pm:
    That's it! USENET is EXACTLY where Sorabji belongs. Except that by now he'd be dwelling exclusively in alt.usenet.kooks or have been 86'd by Tim Skirvin's killbots. What a tragedy, born fifty years too soon.
By Sorabji on Saturday, February 7, 1998 - 08:35 pm:
    No one would have paid any attention to him there, either.
By C. Berg on Sunday, February 8, 1998 - 11:36 am:
    I guess I am going to have to start a Delius section and wax poetic there, finding no sympathy here. (He was one of the original Sorabji's favorites, you know.) I grant that many of the later pieces are hard, hard going (the Requiem being one of them, but the last two pages even of that are wonderful and unique). "Fennimore and Gerda", during its rehearsal period at Juilliard a few years ago, was re-named "Deep Thoughts" by the crew -- probably the most boring opera ever written -- but, again, even there, some incredibly beautiful music in the last few pages.

    The suggestion about analysis of Sorabji's writings is interesting. But it would be necessary to read the entire (mostly unpublished) jottings, which includes, among other things, a paean to "fine large penes" (no closet homo, he) to do them any kind of justice.

    I do think you guys (or was it only Mark?)are off-base when you suggest he may have been jealous -- bitter and angry, yes, but Sorabji jealous of Cyril Scott? or "Blue Serge Prokofiev" -- don't make me laugh! (And, don't forget, he was the first to puncture the inflated -- and ridiculous -- reputation of that hopelessly cynical Soviet jokester Shostakovich.)

    It is always pleasant to read unkind words about Charles Ives. Thank you, Mark.
By Schissel on Sunday, February 15, 1998 - 03:58 am:
    C. Berg- plenty of agreement about Delius here.
    Usually I find his music wonderful. The opening
    to In a Summer Garden, especially.
By C. Berg on Wednesday, February 18, 1998 - 12:47 pm:
    This is for Jicotea, responding (oh, so tardily) to his of 1/31/98 -- which I somehow missed seeing till now. And the answer is Yes, a recording is a possibility indeed. If, in fact, there is to be a performance of this mysterious Sorabji work (no sure thing, of course), there would almost without doubt also be a recording. (I have since learned, by the way, that the Piano Quintet No. 1 has been rehearsed not once but twice, with intent to perform, and in each case has run afoul for mysterious reasons. Marc-André Roberge has written an article (well-researched but, unfortunately, none too illuminating) on this subject.)

    So, yes, please, keep looking for and/or thinking about possible string players. Not the ones who "[I] wouldn't like it", please (to quote Mark).

    Thanks!
By Jicotea on Thursday, February 19, 1998 - 02:52 am:
    I'm looking, I'm looking. They don't grow under every forsythia bush, y'know...not the kind you're going to need. So far, I have been received variously by gales of coarse laughter, surly grumbles of terminal lack of interest, and have managed to get the attention only of another damned pianist.

    Delius = root canal work. Feh.

    I was the user of the traditional kosher restaurant waitperson phrase, "You wouldn't like it." Credit where due, please.
By C.Berg on Saturday, February 21, 1998 - 12:06 pm:
    Sorabji -- I keep coming back here to see if anyone ever adds to it, which no one ever does, and in today's re-reading of certain portions, I noted that you say you have PERFORMED some Sorabji pieces in New York. When? Where? Are there tapes? Could I hear them? How?
By Dave on Saturday, February 21, 1998 - 10:08 pm:
    I recently came across a copy of 'Sorabji A Legend in His Own Time' for $3.99. So I bought it. I have a retarded ear but my first thought was, "happy fingers". After reading people's perceptions of him in this thread, I guess that maybe they weren't so happy. Itchy, perhaps. . .
By Sorabji on Saturday, February 21, 1998 - 11:46 pm:
    i played "In the Hothouse" at the Nicholas Roehrich and some or another of the "Frammenti Afforistici" at the NYPL. the Hothouse was on a program with all of Ives' "Concord" and a bunch of Philip Glass.

    my page-turner reported back that he really really and i mean really had to go to the bathroom all the time he was sitting there and turning my pages for the Ives.

    after the show i know he peed for almost 10 minutes straight.

    nowadays i think i have the thing memorized.

    The latter might be on tape, the former certainly is not. I can't believe anyone would make much of an effort to hear even one of Sorabji's Frammenti on tape.

    i also did the Hothouse thing somewhere in the middle of Ohio. no tape there, either.

    tapes tapes tapes. one thing about musicians these days is they always have to have it on tape.
By C. Berg on Tuesday, February 24, 1998 - 10:56 am:
    I don't like tapes. I wish (in a way) they (and CD's) didn't exist. There is, after all, nothing like owning something to destroy its pleasure-giving capability.

    But I would -- possibly because I know nothing about them from experience -- like to hear some Frammenti. Possibly better on my own piano in my own quarters.
By C. Berg on Tuesday, February 24, 1998 - 10:56 am:
    I don't like tapes. I wish (in a way) they (and CD's) didn't exist. There is, after all, nothing like owning something to destroy its pleasure-giving capability.

    But I would -- possibly because I know nothing about them from experience -- like to hear some Frammenti. Possibly better on my own piano in my own quarters.
By C. Berg on Saturday, March 14, 1998 - 08:28 am:
    Boo to Yonty Solomon. His "Le jardin parfumé" sounds like a beginner noodling. Really horrible. Haberman, however, DOES have the chops, plays the piece -- at least -- accurately. Boo to Yonty Solomon. I wonder if anyone will EVER read this.
By Jicotea on Monday, March 30, 1998 - 06:34 pm:
    I hate to tell you, Christopher, but I just popped a hot link to RIGHT HERE in the USENET forum
    rec.music.classical, at the beginning of a thread on Sorabji. Be nize to the visitors, won't you?
    Lots of people are going to be reading this!
By Sorabji on Friday, April 3, 1998 - 11:07 am:
    Looks like Usenet is as popular as ever.

    Since Monday, that link to this page drew exactly 5 visitors.

    And I think 2 of them may have been the same person.

    Way to drive that traffic, man!
By Jicotea on Saturday, April 4, 1998 - 10:08 pm:
    USENET persons don't herd worth a damn, Sorabji. I notice that they haven't left tracks all over the place either. Trouble is, the bulk of them are 'no opinion' lurkers. Just like the bulk of everybody else.
By Sorabji on Sunday, April 5, 1998 - 12:07 am:
    i dipped into usenet last night, as a matter of fact, for the first time in over a year.

    after rummaging through hundreds of "YOU MUST READ THIS" and "THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE" and "AMAZING!! MARKETING!! SECRETS!!" nonsenses I gave up. it really made me mad, too.

    I'M AN ANGRY MAN!!!

    this site (and other sites i've done) has shown up in lé usenet at various times, and that self-described mighty force has never drawn more than a dozen visitors, none of whom were anything more than curiosity seekers who "clicked here" exactly once.

    and that, in a nutshell, is why i don't visit the place any more. though i did buy this swank newsreader program the other day, in case I'm overtaken by the urge to consult the artificial intelligence or classical music newsgroups for illiterate, hyperspastic marketing detritus.
By R.C. on Sunday, April 5, 1998 - 12:13 pm:
    That wd be us. Feel free to consult at will. We're always hyperspastic on Sundays/but only illiterate when inebriated. (This needs a good Slackerism. Where is that guy when ya need hm?)

    {{Greetings Jicotea!}} Is yr site up & running yet? C'mon -- whatcha waitin' for, man? I'm dying to browse around & find some terribly obscure stuff to buy. (And pls. do post some sample sound files!) Then once I've listened to it/I can come back here & post some inane remark that cranks everybody up & gets the sparks flying again.

    The only classical I've listened to lately was from a very cool PBS series earlier this week: "Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach." I was in heaven watching him play. The ice skating didn't do much for me/but the dances that Kenny G look-alike choreographer created were fabulous! He really captured the humour that comes thru in some of the suites. In my humble opinion.

    For those who are interested/the PBS series continues this week with a collaboration btwn Yo-Yo & director Atom Egoyan ('Exotica', 'The Sweet Hereafter'). Which looked kinda lame in the previews. But I'll watch just to see/hear Yo-Yo play.
By Jicotea on Monday, April 6, 1998 - 03:32 am:
    My, such a vehement response to USENET!

    You're welcome to your opinion of the newsgroups, mark, although in riffling through the wonders of sorabji.com I notice you have gathered unto yourself a significant portion of "illiterate, hyperspastic" regular posters.That seems to be a net characteristic, the young being able to operate terminals without actually putting much thought into what they are, um, putting out.

    I can't speak for the alt.ngs because I don't hang out there, but one thing that cannot be done by any individual poster or group in rec.music.classical is manipulate the newsgroup into a single opinion or direction. (I see people trying this on daily).

    Whereas, you are running people around your site like toy trains, or trying to. These Kiddies haven't got an effing clew, fingering their versatile nexuses and whinging about the reverses life hands them. Is this manipulative?
    U betcha bippy.

    R.C.: U will B among the 1st to know when my site is up. Promise! I will have my own domain, not be hung on the ~end of a thorn.

By Sorabji on Monday, April 6, 1998 - 09:57 am:
    J - As usual, my point is lost on you. Usenet is awash in illiterate pyramid marketing schemes, worthless spam and frantic get rich quick nonsense. It also happens to have a few interesting niches, but so few that I'd rather just read the letters section of a newspaper.

    I was expressing frustration at having spent 45 minutes in an AI newsgroup (which used to be my favorite low-key and even highbrow newsgroup) wading through over 300 messages, about 85% of which were "YOU MUST READ THIS TWICE!!!" crap.

    If Usenet is your tribe then have a blast. I spent over a year in there and never got much out of it, but maybe I didn't try hard enough. But it would never occur to me to stomp through and say rude things about the people there. Maybe as I get older...
By C.A.Scott on Wednesday, May 27, 1998 - 05:13 pm:
    I hear that Sorabji'sOrgan Symphony #2 might soon be available. Does anyone have any more info?

By Christopher Berg pianist for the quintet and on Tuesday, August 18, 1998 - 02:15 am:

    To C.A. Scott (if you're ever around here), yes, the second organ symphony is under way (Bowyer), and, if I'm not mistaken may already have been recorded.

    For the few who actually read these messages, please take note that there will take place in NEW YORK CITY an ALL-SORABJI CONCERT at Merkin Concert Hall on December 6, 1998 at 6 p.m. Concert will feature world premiere of Sorabji's Piano Quintet No. 1 (1920) (a modest work of some 20 minutes' duration) as well as the U.S. premiere (and second performance anywhere, I believe) of his Piano Sonata No. 2 and a performance of the 3 Fetes galantes. All works from the early '20s.

    Tickets will be available at the Merkin box office a few weeks before the performance. It is hoped that the concert will be recorded live for CD release.

By Christopher Berg on Friday, August 28, 1998 - 06:34 am:

    Correction: Concert will take place at 7 p.m. on December 6, 1998, not 6. Please attend!

By Tom DiSarlo on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 01:42 pm:

    Will one of you kind folks drop me an e-mail if some information about the release of the Organ Symphony Nr. 2 is available?
    BTW: I was told by Mark-Andre Hamelin that Kevin Bowyer was in *very* poor health a few years ago while in the process of trying to get the Second Organ Symphony into shape. I can just imagine what the work is like (reading the score of the First Organ Symphony, as corrected by Mr. Bowyer, while he traverses its strange terrain, gives one a great respect for Bowyer's sense of purpose!)

By Eric Schissel on Sunday, April 11, 1999 - 01:42 am:

    Sorry- no new information that I know of on Organ
    Symphony #2. Am very sorry to hear about Bowyer-
    but- hope this is .not. permanent :(... few have done
    more for Sorabji's music it seems to me. (Not none,
    of course- consider Hinton's and Rapoport's labors for one thing- but few.)
    Anyone who can take a large-scale Sorabji score
    and begin editing it into shape right now will be doing
    future would-be Sorabji-playing pianists a .big.
    favor, by the way... imo...

By Robertk on Tuesday, May 4, 1999 - 02:53 pm:

    Since this seems to be the only thread that's really current, I'm going to ask a Roslavets question here. Anyone know any details about "The Hours of the New Moon"? Or can anyone point me to a useful link?

By Eric Schissel on Monday, May 22, 2000 - 06:20 pm:

    Schott came out with a score of Hours of the New Moon (V cacy novolunija) in 1993.
    Not sure if that helps much, though...

By Stefan on Sunday, March 18, 2001 - 01:52 pm:

By M G on Wednesday, September 26, 2001 - 01:45 pm:

    And now Oc has been recorded by Geoffrey
    Douglas Madge and Michael Habermann

    So we have 3 oc's to compare.

    Still prefer JO tho.

    And... I have the score. 252 pages no less.

    Can't say I'm up to the Passacaglia, but the
    Adagio is not impossible. Even tried the Introit,
    but Rh gets tired very quickly.

    If only I could read my MS of the Sinfonia
    Brevis

By Eric Schissel on Thursday, December 13, 2001 - 11:08 am:

    For myself I'm hoping as a long-term project to make a performing edition of the Fourth Toccata, the one KSS score I have, but my skills with notation software are in the "improving" stage so - we'll see. And I need to get other work out of the way, first. (It's been something I've been meaning to do for some years now, alas. Hopefully I can get real work begun on it very soon.)

By Butorac on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 11:50 pm:

    Don't know if this site is outdated, or whatnot, but "Lev Abeliovich" is an amazing composer who is not well-known. Among my favourites.

By GMHC on Saturday, April 17, 2004 - 05:06 pm:

    Is Kevin Bowyer playing the Sorabji Organ Symphony No 2 at Bath Abbey on June 2 or not? The performance was advertised at Manchester Cathedral last year when he played No. 1, but it does not appear in the Bath International Festival brochure. I would hate to travel all the way to Bath and it not happen.

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