Sorabji -- Le Jardin Parfume

sorabji.com: Obscure Classical Composers: Sorabji -- Le Jardin Parfume
THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).
By R.C. on Sunday, January 18, 1998 - 03:24 pm:
    I really like this music... It's dark & mysterious & incredibly sexy -- & I want more! But before I go making a fool of myself in front of some snobbish classical music store clerk/how do I pronounce Sorabji? It is Sor-abe-jee with a long A & a J/or Sor-ab-hee, short A & an H? And was The Perfumed Garden an abberation/or does most if his stuff sound that good? Becuz the piece at that link Mark gave me was not my cuppa tea... Any recommendations guys?
By Sorabji on Monday, January 19, 1998 - 03:49 pm:
    Sore-Ob-Jee.
By Eric Schissel on Saturday, January 24, 1998 - 06:59 pm:
    Hrm. So little or Sorabji's music- there's quite a lot- has been recorded that it's hard to say. According to Habermann's essay on Sorabji's piano music, republished in Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, Sorabji's piano style divides into several types, including but not limited to a nocturne type, a chorale-prelude-like type, and a fugal type (for instance). His writing in all these different kinds can be diverse and appropriate. Le Jardin Parfume, like Jami (named after a famous poet) and Gulistan, are nocturnes through and through. Other works, like Opus Clavicembalisticum (on 4 CDs from Altarus, I believe- possibly OOP) and the Organ Symphony no. 1 (on Continuum), combine different musics in ambitious, large, well-designed (IMHO) formal plans with a potentially staggering effect. Some of his works are .quite. brief- many a minute or less; yet his longest work is near 8 hours in length. Anyhow, as I said, try the Elan CD, IMHO. (Played by Habermann, in fact, and consisting only partially of reissues.)
By Eric Schissel on Saturday, January 24, 1998 - 07:00 pm:
    Hrm. So little or Sorabji's music- there's quite a lot- has been recorded that it's hard to say. According to Habermann's essay on Sorabji's piano music, republished in Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, Sorabji's piano style divides into several types, including but not limited to a nocturne type, a chorale-prelude-like type, and a fugal type (for instance). His writing in all these different kinds can be diverse and appropriate. Le Jardin Parfume, like Jami (named after a famous poet) and Gulistan, are nocturnes through and through. Other works, like Opus Clavicembalisticum (on 4 CDs from Altarus, I believe- possibly OOP) and the Organ Symphony no. 1 (on Continuum), combine different musics in ambitious, large, well-designed (IMHO) formal plans with a potentially staggering effect. Some of his works are .quite. brief- many a minute or less; yet his longest work is near 8 hours in length. Anyhow, as I said, try the Elan CD, IMHO. (Played by Habermann, in fact, and consisting only partially of reissues.)
By Eric Schissel on Saturday, January 24, 1998 - 07:00 pm:
    Hrm. So little or Sorabji's music- there's quite a lot- has been recorded that it's hard to say. According to Habermann's essay on Sorabji's piano music, republished in Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, Sorabji's piano style divides into several types, including but not limited to a nocturne type, a chorale-prelude-like type, and a fugal type (for instance). His writing in all these different kinds can be diverse and appropriate. Le Jardin Parfume, like Jami (named after a famous poet) and Gulistan, are nocturnes through and through. Other works, like Opus Clavicembalisticum (on 4 CDs from Altarus, I believe- possibly OOP) and the Organ Symphony no. 1 (on Continuum), combine different musics in ambitious, large, well-designed (IMHO) formal plans with a potentially staggering effect. Some of his works are .quite. brief- many a minute or less; yet his longest work is near 8 hours in length. Anyhow, as I said, try the Elan CD, IMHO. (Played by Habermann, in fact, and consisting only partially of reissues.)
By Eric Schissel on Saturday, January 24, 1998 - 07:01 pm:
    I want to apologize for the double-post- the machine was giving me problems.
By Jicotea on Saturday, January 24, 1998 - 09:29 pm:
    Never mind the double post. It's worth reading twice. I want _everyone_ to know that when it comes to obscure composers and for that matter _any_ music in this genre, Eric Schissel can run rings around me in exposition...because he_knows_it and I am just a bagful of random opinionation .
By Schissel on Sunday, February 1, 1998 - 12:33 am:
    My thanks to Jicotea for all that I believe the compliment is unwarranted as is his self-disparagement.
By Jgav on Sunday, May 10, 1998 - 10:43 pm:
    I'm also becoming addicted to Sorabji!!!. Has Jami been recorded yet?? Aren't there about 9 Piano Sonatas. Only know of recording of #1 by the fabulous pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin. (My observation) Habermann is a fine pianist by why are his recordings engineered so poorly??
By Eric Schissel on Wednesday, June 17, 1998 - 02:17 pm:
    There are in fact 5 piano sonatas (plus an early un-numbered one) and 6 piano symphonies. I do not find Habermann's recordings to be engineered poorly- please explain? I only know the Elan CD and le Jardin Parfume, though, and not his other recordings. Agree with you about Hamelin- I hope Hyperion will encourage him to keep a broad repertoire; I look forward to his Medtner! Habermann believes, by the way, that the first piano sonata is the least of the first three (see his dissertation on Sorabji's piano music, excerpted in Sorabji: A Critical Celebration.)
    I have a higher opinion of #1 than Habermann seems to but perhaps that merely means that I will enjoy #3- so far recorded only in BBC broadcast, two decades or so ago- all the more. It occurs to me that if one tenth of Sorabji's fans committed to editing some of his music for possible publication (and .if. a publisher could be found), the day when his large works might actually be performed would draw that much closer...-Eric Schissel
By Misha Rachlevsky on Saturday, August 22, 1998 - 06:42 pm:

    Can you please help me to get in touch with Eric Schissel? His e-mail address, perhaps?

    Thanks, Misha Rachlevsky music@glasnet.ru

By Eric Schissel on Sunday, August 23, 1998 - 12:09 pm:

    Well, if anyone's still reading here :)
    - thought I should mention that on December 6 (I think) at Merkin Hall in New York City the following Sorabji works will be performed:

    first piano quintet (premiere)
    trois fetes galantes
    second piano sonata

By Bosco Stoltzfus on Monday, May 24, 1999 - 11:47 pm:

    Charles Hopkin's recording of Gulistan on Altarus is also way beyond praise. Habermann's recording of this piece on Elan has its virtues, but Hopkin's speaks to me just a bit more eloquently, and is much better recorded. Hopkins writes for International Piano Quarterly, but this is his only recording. An unknown major talent.

    Habermann's own confession is that he hates editing, so that he tends to just release live performances. The fact that he plays Sorabji from memory and that his recordings are by and large unedited adds to the amazement involved in listening to him. My favorite Habermann recording is Sorabji's "Hommage a Johann Strauss", which desperately needs to be re-issued.

By Eric Schissel on Monday, May 22, 2000 - 06:15 pm:

    Le Jardin Parfume was performed in New York City on March 22 2000 by Stephen Mayer; did anyone hear this? How did it go? Public performances of Sorabji are .still. too rare... (I found out about this, rather late, from the New Yorker magazine. Though with my schedule I doubt I would have been able to go, or even make it from Ithaca... *sigh!*)

By Dace Gisclard on Friday, December 22, 2000 - 02:35 pm:

    Hamelin is the kind of super-virtuoso who was born to give us the recording of Opus Clavicembalisticum we have been waiting for! If you enjoyed his Sorabji, check out the Hyperion set of the Chopin-Godowsky studies--incredible playing--he completely outdoes Carlo Grante! Also, if you enjoyed "Djami", large portions of the "Opus" are in the same idiom (and large portions are not!--much more violent!) Habermann's last Sorabji recording including "He was Laughing in the Tower" is still available from Musical Heritage Society. Unfortunately, I copied all of his Sorabji LP's to CDR and then accidentally destroyed the CDR's in a hot car after getting rid of the LP's! Would appreciate any information about sources for all three of Habermann's three LP's transferred to CD! phone: 281-272-0184. Address: 4427 Shingle Oak Lane, Houston, TX 77088--sorry, I don't have and E-mail address for personal messages. Thanks!

By Eric Schissel on Saturday, January 13, 2001 - 07:31 pm:

    The recording of Opus Clav I'm familiar with is Ogdon's- still haven't heard Madge's Chicago performance or any of his others at that. As to Hamelin, agreed but it's such an investment of time that I don't see him doing it right now.. could always hope.
    There were some postings to rec.music.classical.recordings if I remember correctly where Carlo Grante indicated he was studying the Sequentia Cyclica for eventual performance/recording, a rather later work than the Opus Clav but just as major a landmark in Sorabji's
    output- I wonder if he (Grante) is still on it? Even if so, might take 10 years (no joke.) But what's worth doing is worth doing well and worth waiting for.
    And what little I know of the Sequentia Cyclica suggests that it's _worth_ doing... if it's representative of Sorabji's later style then it's _definitely_ worth doing ;)
    As to email for personal messages, I personally suggest buffer emails like hotmail, yahoo, and thelike. But all such have disads as well as advantages. I try to reserve my personal email for friends to some extent and (not consistently but increasingly) use my other accounts as my public "face"...

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