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Sorabji: Opus clavicembalisticum
 
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Sorabji: Opus clavicembalisticum [Box set]

~ Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (Composer), Geoffrey Douglas Madge (Performer)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
Price: £42.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Performer: Geoffrey Douglas Madge
  • Composer: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
  • Audio CD (1 Jan 2000)
  • SPARS Code: ADD
  • Number of Discs: 3
  • Format: Box set
  • Label: BIS
  • ASIN: B00002R2ZV
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 312,120 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.


Disc 1:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Op. clavicembalisticum: I. Introito 3:17£0.59
Listen  2. Op. clavicembalisticum: II. Preludio-Corale (Nexus)13:33Album Only
Listen  3. Op. clavicembalisticum: III. Fuga I quatuor vocibus12:05Album Only
Listen  4. Op. clavicembalisticum: IV. Fantasia 5:35£0.59
Listen  5. Op. clavicembalisticum: V. Fuga II duplex16:04Album Only


Disc 2:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Op. Clavicembalisticum: VI. Interludium Primum (Thema Cum Xlix Variationibus)45:05Album Only
Listen  2. Op. clavicembalisticum: VII. Cadenza I 5:12£0.59


Disc 3:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Op. Clavicembalisticum: VIII. Fuga Tertia Triplex: Dux Primus10:22Album Only
Listen  2. Op. Clavicembalisticum: VIII. Fuga Tertia Triplex: Dux Alter11:01Album Only
Listen  3. Op. Clavicembalisticum: VIII. Fuga Tertia Triplex: Dux Tertius12:32Album Only


Disc 4:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Op. clavicembalisticum: IX. Interludium alterum: Toccata 5:50£0.59
Listen  2. Op. clavicembalisticum: IX. Interludium alterum: Adagio16:25Album Only
Listen  3. Op. Clavicembalisticum: IX. Interludium Alterum: Passacaglia Cum Lxxxi Variationibus35:22Album Only
Listen  4. Op. clavicembalisticum: X. Cadenza II 3:28£0.59


Disc 5:

Samples
Song Title Time Price
Listen  1. Op. clavicembalisticum: XI. Fuga IV quadruplex: Dux primus 8:34Album Only
Listen  2. Op. clavicembalisticum: XI. Fuga IV quadruplex: Dux alter 7:31£0.59
Listen  3. Op. clavicembalisticum: XI. Fuga IV quadruplex: Dux tertius 7:23£0.59
Listen  4. Op. clavicembalisticum: XI. Fuga IV quadruplex: Dux quartus 9:56Album Only
Listen  5. Op. clavicembalisticum: XII. Coda-Stretta 7:34£0.59
Listen  6. Op. clavicembalisticum: Applause 2:21£0.59

On this CD:
  1. Opus clavicembalisticum
    Composed by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
    with Geoffrey Douglas Madge

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

A work with a name like this can only be unusual. The opus in question is a three-part solo piano epic, lasting a shade under four hours and of a complexity to match. Combine an all-night raga sequence with Bach's Art of Fugue and you're getting close. Is it worth the listen? Yes, if you want to give your heart and mind--not just your brain--a real workout. For all his outsize demands, Sorabji was a front-rank pianist, who understood technique as a physical end to spiritual means. There are stretches of manic complexity here, but also passages of real poetry: try the lengthy "Interludium primum" which opens Part 2, or many of the 81(!) variations which follow the magisterial "Passacaglia" in Part 3. It's music which cries out for transcendental virtuosity, and Geoffrey Douglas Madge gives it just that. He gave four performances over six years and this Chicago one from 1983 assumed mythic status among those who heard it. Remastered for CD release, it is awe-inspiring in its grasp of what's gone into this music: the audience clearly living it with the pianist every step of the way. Hear it for yourself, then why not run the marathon or climb Everest for relaxation? --Richard Whitehouse

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8 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A legendary performance of a legendary piece., 22 Feb 2001
By A Customer
It may not come as a surprise to find that a British composer born Leon Dudley, who later adopted the title of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, was to write some rather extreme music.

By no means the longest of Sorabji's works, the Opus Clavicembalisticum certainly is his most notorious. First performed in Glasgow in 1930 by the composer, himself a formidable pianist, it was not the dissonance in harmonies or terrifying virtuosity required from the performer that was to shock the music scene, but the sheer length of the piece.

Sorabji conceived Opus Clavicembalisticum to be about four- and three-quarter hours in length, so maybe he would turn in his grave to find that the performance Geoffrey Douglas Madge gives is a fraction under four hours. After all, Sorabji did declare a self imposed ban on the public performance of his works after a lesser pianist played a movement from the eponymous work too slowly.

So what about the performance? Well, Madge certainly considers the musical content more so than his recorded predecessor John Ogdon, who undoubtedly sight-read most of the thing. The sound is also good, albeit a bit warm and "fuzzy" giving the impression of over pedalling on the pianist's part.

Besides the less than top quality recorded sound, the pianism is of the highest calibre and this account should remain the bench mark for many years and many brave pianists to come.

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