Opus Clavicembalisticum
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Opus Clavicembalisticum is a solo piano piece composed by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, completed on June 26, 1930. It is characterized by its four (sometimes five) hour duration and its extreme demands upon the pianist. It is considered by many to be the most difficult piece of music ever written for the piano, dwarfing most pieces in its complexity and difficulty.
It was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest piano piece ever written. However Sorabji's Symphonic Variations, which occupy 500 pages of manuscript, take even longer—about 6 hours (also since superseded; Frederic Rzewski's work The Road takes about 8 hours to perform).
It appears that this work is a homage to Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica.
Opus Clavicembalisticum is written in twelve parts:
- Introito
- Preludio Corale
- Fuga I
- Fantasia
- Fuga A Due Soggetti
- Interludium Primum (Thema Cum XLIV Variationibus)
- Cadenza I
- Fuga A Tre Soggetti
- Interludium Alterum (Toccata: Adagio. Passacaglia Cum LXXXI Variationibus)
- Cadenza II
- Fuga A Quattro Soggetti
- Coda Stretta
In a letter upon completion of the massive work, Sorabji wrote to a friend of his:
With a wracking head and literally my whole body shaking as with ague I write this and tell you I have just this afternoon early finished Clavicembalisticum... 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...
There have only been a handful of performances of Opus Clavicembalisticum. The first was by Sorabji himself in 1930, but the second did not occur until 1982, when the Australian pianist Geoffrey Douglas Madge played it in concert. He went on to perform it on other occasions. Madge and John Ogdon have also recorded the piece. Currently, Jonathan Powell has been touring with this work, and a recording is rumored to be planned. J. J. Schmid performed part of the work at the Biennale Bern 03. [link]
External links
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