The music of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji acquired mythic status long before his death in 1988 at the age of 96, not least through the ban on public performances imposed by him in 1938. When the ban was lifted in 1976, Michael Habermann was among the first pianists to take up Sorabji in earnest. The fruits of his devotion – technically and conceptually – to some of the most demanding music yet conceived for piano can be heard on these recordings, made over a 15-year period and only partially available on CD prior to this integral reissue.

Spanning mainly the period 1918-41, the set covers the first half of Sorabji’s career (though he would have blanched at hearing it so referred to!) – dominated by the vast Opus clavicembalisticum,/I>, later championed by John Ogdon and Geoffrey Douglas Madge, and represented here by a swift and eventful rendition of its first two sections. A notable feature is the ‘themed’ grouping of pieces on each disc. The ‘Early Works’ of disc 1 is a good place to begin ex-ploring: ‘In the Hothouse’ and Fantaisie espagnole will appeal to anyone who enjoys the more demonstrative output of Scriabin or Szymanowski, while the pastiches show that – at least at this stage in his composing – Sorabji’s music was not without humour.

The second disc comprises a trio of nocturnes: pieces whose rhapsodic unfolding belies their intricacy of construction. If the harmonic profile of Le jardin parfumé draws in resonances of Delius and pre-echoes of Messiaen, that of Djâmî represents a sublimation of means to wholly original ends – and is the undoubted masterpiece of this collection. Aficionados would no doubt make even greater claims for Gulistan, but here the very complexity of texture seems designed to conceal rather than intensify expression. It is a consideration the more apparent in St Bertrand de Comminges – culmination of the ‘Assertive Works’ gathered on disc 3 – whose plasticity of gesture and profusion of incident infers a self-communing which borders on narcissism. Better the uninhibited virtuosity of the Prelude, Interlude and Fugue, or the distilled intensity of Fragment for Harold Rutland, as a demonstration of Sorabji’s musical persona at its most compulsive.

As to the performances, there can be no doubting the extent of Habermann’s sympathies, nor his depth of insight. Moreover, the sound as remastered here has considerably more tonal depth than the selection which ASV reissued some years ago (nla). Those tempted to sample this music might turn to Yonty Solomon in Le jardin parfumé or Donna Amato in Fantaisie espagnole (Altarus, 7/93). Charles Hopkins’s account of Gulistan (Altarus, 4/96) offers appreciably different insights, while the strengths and weaknesses of Madge’s live Opus clavicembalisticum (BIS) provides a more than pertinent corollary to those of the music itself. The present release comes with informative notes by Habermann, and can be cordially recommended to those keen to immerse themselves in a composer whose singularity of expression is sometimes matched by the conviction of his achievement.