Titanic Piano

Harry Bowden and James Mayhew piano

SORABJI Preludio-Corale and Fuga I from Opus Clavicembalisticum
ALKAN Concert Etude ‘Le Preux’, Op 17; Symphony for solo piano, Op 39 No 4 (first movement); Canon, Op 65 No 3; Concerto for solo piano, Op 39 No 10 (third movement)

In a repertoire of epic virtuosity and visionary aspirations, the piano music of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji and Charles-Valentin Alkan still stands out. Both wrote piano cycles of unprecedented complexity and enormous originality, often lasting several hours; they stretched technical demands to the limit.

Two Academy pianists, Harry Bowden and James Mayhew, take these titans on, including movements from Sorabji’s colossal four-hour Opus Clavicembalisticum.

‘With a wracking head and literally my whole body shaking as with ague, I write to tell you I have just this afternoon finished Clavicembalisticum... the closing four pages are as cataclysmic and catastrophic as anything I've ever done. The harmony bites like nirtic acid, the counterpoint grinds like the mills of God…’
Sorabji writing to a friend on 30 June 1930