Today is the anniversary of the birth of the pianist-composer known as Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji.
Born Leon Dudley in 1892 to a civil engineer of Parsi parentage and an English mother, Sorabji’s most notorious pieces are even longer than his name. His “Opus clavicembalisticum” clocks in at around four hours in performance. The composer wrote, “The closing 4 pages are so cataclysmic and catastrophic as anything I’ve ever done – the harmony bites like nitric acid – the counterpoint grinds like the mills of God…” Even so, some of his later works make it seem like a mere bagatelle. His “Symphonic Variations for Piano” is roughly nine hours in length.
As if that weren’t enough to place a seal on his obscurity, Sorabji put a ban on public performance of his music for 40 years. Sorabji had the means to live in seclusion, and in seclusion he lived. A complex and at times prickly individual, his scores nevertheless attracted some persistent champions who managed to coax him out of retirement for a final burst of creativity until failing eyesight and difficulty holding a pen caused him to give it up. Sorabji died in 1988, at the age of 96.
Clearly, Sorabji marched to the beat of his own drum. Equally evident is that much of his music is inappropriate for drive time. But join me today, and we’ll sample some of his shorter pieces, among our featured works, to propel you on your afternoon commute, from 4 to 7 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.