Kaikhosru Sorabji, the composer, wrote 90 hours of piano music over 65 years, with some individual works lasting 8 to 9 hours.
Compositional Technique
Sorabji's major piano works are dense, often moving in seven to nine parts with close to as many rhythms, sometimes notated on overloaded six-staff systems.
Performer Biography
Fredrik Ullén, the pianist on this recording, is also a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, where he researches musical expertise and creativity.
Composition History
Sorabji's 100 Transcendental Studies, composed between 1940 and 1944, is his second-longest work, lasting at least seven hours.
Composer's Artistic Vision
The title "100 Transcendental Studies" by Kaikhosru Sorabji alludes to Liszt's famous set of the same name, and Sorabji may have been inspired after hearing Egon Petri play Liszt's études.
Recording & Production
The studies on this disc are performed using editions prepared by Alexander Abercrombie, which are available from the Sorabji Archive.
