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FANFARE
January/February 1984, Volume 7, Number 3

By Paul Rapoport

SORABJI: Opus Clavicembalisticum: Introito and Preludio corale. In the Hothouse. Toccata. Fantaisie espagnole. Fragment. Pastiche: "Habanera" from Bizet's Carmen. Michael Habermann, piano. MUSICMASTERS MM 20015, produced by Donald Garvelmann, $7.98 [available from: Intersound, Inc., 14O25 -- 23rd Ave. North, Minneapolis, MN 55441].

This record was reviewed very favorably by A.C. and myself in Fanfare IV:5 when it first appeared as MHS 4271, obtainable with difficulty only by mail order. Since then some MHS material has appeared through outside retail channels on their Musicmasters label, whose distribution as noted above should bring about a much-needed increase in availability.

Habermann plays this extraordinary music extraordinarily musically, and he is even better on his second Sorabji record, Musicmasters MM 20019, reviewed in Fanfare VI:4. He reportedly has another discfull of Sorabji's music ready to record ... any record company with a nose for big discoveries and rare talent should be banging on his door.