MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS

Kaikhosru Shapurji SORABJI (1892-1988)
Symphonia brevis (Symphony No. 5 for solo piano).(1973)
Donna Amato (piano)
rec. no details given
ALTARUS AIR-CD-9064(2) [66:35 + 47:52]

Experience Classicsonline




Sorabji’s symphonies for solo piano are monumental. There are six of them: No, 1 Tantrik (1938-39), No. 2 (1954), No. 3 (1959-60), No. 4 (1962-64), No. 5 Symphonia Brevis (1973) and No. 6 (1975-76). Four of the six are estimated each to take more than four hours.

The Brevis runs to two hours and is dedicated to Alistair Hinton whose works have also been recorded by Altarus. Hinton is, among many other things, the guardian of the constantly evolving and enhancing Sorabji Archive – a rewarding facility with enviably in-depth coverage vying with that of the Joseph Marx site.

The music here recalls a cloak of many densely glistening colours swirling like a galaxy in a slow motion or at heady velocity - the centripetal vortex of a riptide whirlpool. The sound may be likened (crudely) to a luxuriant Szymanowski-Debussian jungle. Its sometimes riotous colour scheme is clamorous for orchestra in much the same way that Bax’s solo piano music calls out. The martellato writing of Bax’s Winter Legends is suggested more than once. You can hear it in the Nexus finale and in the Preludio quasi toccata. The music often rises over a long span and then fades to thinner textures which chime amid a shimmer of ambiguous rainbow harmonies. The hypnotically deliberate Adagio makes way for the headlong Preludio quasi toccata (III) and the surreal Klimtian ocean depths of Aria fiorita. The sonata ends in peaceful lapidary mystery.

Amato’s familiarity with the idiom is unassailable as is her command of dynamic as well as towering power and celerity. She has played many Sorabji works – representing an enormous investment in time, concentration and devotion. Her premieres include Variazione maliziosa e perversa sopra “La morte d’Åse” da Grieg (1974), Toccatinetta sopra C.F.G. (1928), Due sutras sul nome dell’amico Alexis (1981), Passeggiata arlecchinesca sopra un frammento di Busoni (“Ronḍ arlecchinesco”) (1981-82), Quaere reliqua hujus materiei inter secretiora (1940) and on 16 March 2003 she premiered the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra [no. 5] [publ. as Concerto II] (1920) in Utrecht at the Vredenburg Music Center with the Radio Symfonie Orkest conducted by Ed Spanjaard. As for the Brevis she gave its first complete performance in June 2004 at the Merkin Concert Hall, New York.

The Brevis makes for demanding listening but the rewards keep coming. You hear more and are drawn in further every time you listen to this huge canvas. I wonder which of the other symphonies she has on her piano? And these days I would not rule out hopes for a cycle of the six piano concertos.

Rob Barnett



A video of Donna Amato's performance of the 'Adagio' from Symphonia brevis (Movement 2a) may be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veeCl-s4FnM

Symphonia brevis for Piano (1973; 120 pp.):
CD 1
I (“Andante”) [35:52]
IIa (“Adagio”) [13:05]
IIb (“Preludio quasi toccata”) [6:36]
IIc (“Aria fiorita”) [11:01]
CD 2
IId (“Interludio”) [5:33]
IIe (“Notturno”) [22:41]
IIf (“Nexus”; includes “Quasi fuga” and “Coda-Epilogo” followed by (“Punta d’organo”) [29:38]


 

 

 



 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.