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 achingly beautiful, like No. 30, to violently intense, as in No. 42, or inscrutable and strange like No. 35 or baffling and seemingly impossible, for example the left-hand etude No. 36. No one wants to put up a big banner that reads "Expert Listeners Here Only Please," but
Sorabji's highly variable and complex -- though very occasionally disarmingly simple -- work seems to demand it; one needs fast ears to cover all the twists and turns in this music. However, for those who are interested in the "
Scriabin school" and the meaning of its forward trajectory will find much to savor here.
Ullén is more than up to the challenge of meeting this music in a technical sense, without losing sight of imparting what can be a bewildering bouquet of expressive options, and BIS' recording is clear, full, and well-rounded.