Composed in 1928, Sorabji’s five-movement Toccata No. 1 might best be described as a smaller cousin, or a “beta version” if you will, to his subsequent large-scale work, the four-hour-plus Opus Clavicembalisticum. Its opening Preludio-corale maintains a rigorous quarter-note pulse over which moves a flowing counterpoint in both lines and chords. As the movement develops, the harmonies thicken, the textures expand, and the pianist suddenly wishes that he or she had an extra hand or two. This is followed by a passacaglia with 64 variations that (again) progresses from simplicity to a kind of piano writing that resembles Busoni’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica simultaneously performed by three pianists in three different keys. The third-movement cadenza resembles Opus Clavicembalisticum’s similar cascades of notes. Two fugues make up the fourth movement, where the restlessness of Sorabji’s harmonic language and his gift for generating unmemorable melodies by the acre make a pretty turgid combination. The music changes register at times, grows louder and more rhythmically elaborate, yet somehow it manages always to sound the same.
Yet there are pianists in this world who not only believe in Sorabji’s music, but command the superpianism and physical stamina to make its best case. Jonathan Powell is such a virtuoso. No matter how daunting Sorabji’s demands, Powell doesn’t struggle. He not only plays the notes, but also voices them with care and conveys a palpable sense of long lines that don’t bog down in detail. He saves his largest dynamics for the climaxes, where the torrents of sound may tax your loudspeakers’ lungpower. And Powell’s thoughtful and extremely informative program notes are among the best I’ve ever read. I tend to like the idea of Sorabji’s mammoth concoctions more than their reality (for my taste, his shorter piano works are another, happier story), but mega-Sorabji acolytes need no prompting to buy this disc. The sound is good but not outstanding. [9/13/2003]
