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Cakes & Ale
(Vol. XI, No. 3) October 7, 1978
School of the Arts, C.W. Post Center, Long Island University

Sorabji by Habermann
Reviewed by G. T. W. Hund

On Tuesday, September 19, pianist Michael Habermann opened the Music Department's free recital season in the Great Hall with a concert of works by the Parsi composer Sorabji. Mr. Habermann, a graduate student who has already hosted two recitals in New York's Carnegie Recital hall, displayed a mastery of technique and a sensitivity of execution which is rarely encountered, even among the best of professionals. His high level of skill was enhanced by the apparent ease which which Mr. Habermann negotiated the oft tortuous passages of his selected works.

Sorabji left his native India for Europe early in the twentieth century, and eventually settled in England. His music is essentially the language of late nineteenth-century Romanticism, colored by Impressionist timbres and braided with a relentless striving for the unique in complex harmonic situations. The music is sometimes reminiscent of Ravel, or at times contains a quality similar to that found in the works of Charles Ives. For the most part, however, Sorabji's compositions lie between the poles of easy categorization, saliently individual.

The evening was wonderfully concluded with an encore by Ponce, which Mr. Habermann rendered in a manner exquisite. Clearly, Post Center is indeed fortunate to be able to include students such as Mr. Habermann among its ranks. And the Post community is even more fortunate to be given the opportunity to enjoy the talents of such a musician.

(G. T. W. Hund is a French Horn player and a high school music teacher in Bayonne, New Jersey.)