Pianist Fredrik Ullén has taken on the largest single cycle of etudes in history by virtue of agreeing to record composer Kaikhosru Sorabji's mammoth 100 Transcendental Studies for piano, written between 1940 and 1944 but never before recorded. Fredrik Ullén plays Kaikhosru Sorabji 100 Transcendental Studies 26-43 is Ullén's second volume of these works for the Swedish label BIS. The merely expedient break between discs ironically works out in favor of Sorabji's cycle, as the No. 26 Dolcissimo heads into an entirely ...
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Pianist Fredrik Ullén has taken on the largest single cycle of etudes in history by virtue of agreeing to record composer Kaikhosru Sorabji's mammoth 100 Transcendental Studies for piano, written between 1940 and 1944 but never before recorded. Fredrik Ullén plays Kaikhosru Sorabji 100 Transcendental Studies 26-43 is Ullén's second volume of these works for the Swedish label BIS. The merely expedient break between discs ironically works out in favor of Sorabji's cycle, as the No. 26 Dolcissimo heads into an entirely different atmosphere exemplified by the pithy miniatures that typify the first volume. This etude runs almost 10 full minutes and is conceived in the heady, rarefied universe of Sorabji's Le jardin parfumé. With No. 27 Sorabji resumes the practice of resolving advanced technical issues in keeping with the first volume, but through No. 39 the set is nearly progressive, examining the various ways one uses certain fingerings; the last four are a mixed bag. These range in expression from...
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