"Further proof that Sorabji somehow managed simultaneously to adhere to
one of the most instantly recognisable personal idioms in
twentieth-century music while never coming close to repeating himself
even in thousands of pages and repeated returns to a number of favourite
genres and forms. The Symphonic Nocturne is a late work, from 1977-78,
in the final phase of the composer's career in the years following the
self-imposed hiatus in the late 1960s which was broken by the
astonishingly vigorous, fresh and youthful 'Symphonia brevis' (04M065).
The works of this late period tend to be somewhat sparer of texture as
compared to the dense opulence of those from the 30s, 40s and 50s, and
the composer's "meta-tonality", though a constant throughout his career,
tends more toward triads with added-note dissonances than the harmonic
density of earlier years, while retaining the inevitable, if often
unpredictable, sense of harmonic direction that was always a driving
force in his vocabulary. The work's title is a little misleading to
anyone expecting a huge (over two hours in this performance) 'tropical
nocturne' of the Gulistān type; there is arguably more that is symphonic
than nocturnal about much of the piece, especially as its argument
progresses. The passages that are limned in the shades of night have
less to do with the entangled vines and oppressive heat of the earlier
nocturnes than a chilly, bleaker landscape; the direction 'fosco' -
overcast, gloomy - is often to be found. The work has something in
common with the large 'intrecciata' first movements of the piano
symphonies, presenting a great many episodes of different material
without adhering to particular forms that were explored in subsequent
movements of multi-movement pieces. There are brief fugues and canons
among the Symphonic Nocturne's many episodes, but only en passant, so to
speak. A better analogy might be a vast mosaic that, rather than having
a symmetrical pattern, progresses in shape, size and design of tiles as
one views it from one end to the other; the piece is in fact largely
made up of small sections - a single system to a couple of pages at most
- that follow a distinct trajectory (with many diversions along the
way) toward a kind of 'finale', with successive volcanic climaxes finely
calibrated to suggest a dramatic progression. This, and the work's
structuring not by large musical forms but (as the pianist points out in
a perceptive analysis in the booklet) by numerological relationships
which influence the listener's perception of the work's progress in the
way that the proportions of the golden section make a painting pleasing
to the eye, prevent any sense of diffuseness, a further tribute to
Sorabji's skill in maintaining a cogent argument over a very large span." (Review from Records International. See here.)
Performer: Luke Huisman
1.1. Symphonic Nocturne, KSS97
2.1. Symphonic Nocturne, KSS97
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