Fredrik Ullen - Sorabji:Trans. Studies

Composed between 1940 and 1944, Kaikhosru Sorabji's 100 Transcendental Studies has a total duration of at least seven hours, making it by far the largest collection of concert �tudes in the repertoire. Most of the pieces, in particular in the beginning of the cycle, are typical studies in the sense that essentially a single technical or structural idea is explored. But later on Sorabji inserts pieces that are on a much larger scale, and three examples of this are to be found on the present disc, the fourth in Fredrik Ull�n's traversal of the set. En forme de Valse (No. 63) is a 17 minute waltz in which Sorabji envelops his melodies with a jungle of serpentine embellishments, covering the entire keyboard. The closing study, No. 71 has a duration of 13 minutes, and was dubbed Aria by Sorabji, even though the piece in reality is highly polyphonic with a multitude of cantilenas. The most expansive piece, however, is No. 69 - La punta d'organo - with a playing time of close to 26 minutes. All the studies in the cycle have had to wait for decades before their first performance No. 69 was premi�red as late as 2014 - and Fredrik Ull�n is a true pioneer of this repertoire, both live and on disc.