His output may be dominated by large-scale works for piano but Kaikhosru Sorabji wrote vocal and chamber pieces of relative concision across his near-seven decades of creativity. A representative selection has been assembled for this latest release of his music from BIS.

Sorabji wrote numerous songs during his early years – the incomplete ‘Le mauvais jardinier’ (1918 or 1919) setting an Iwan Gilkin sonnet whose overtones of decadence and decay are reflected in its tortuous expression. To a text possibly by the composer, ‘Arabesque’ (1920) is similarly self-revealing, while Cinque Sonetti (1923) sets several of Michelangelo’s most intimate and confessional texts, the voice (intentionally?) fighting through an ensemble whose harmonic intensity is abetted by textural density. Those complex emotions in the verse of Gulistān are potently delineated by Trois Poèmes (1926), with Movement (1927/31) a scena of elaborate vocalise and intricate pianism. Trois Poèmes (1941) treats poems by Verlaine and Baudelaire with a poise and elegance not always found in Sorabji’s maturity, a Harold Morland setting ‘Frammento cantato’ (1967) sounds equally oblique with piano or organ, while ‘Benedizione’ (1973) sees the onset of Sorabji’s last phase with a notably equivocal response to St Francis.

The instrumental music is no less characteristic. Désir éperdu (1917) is a sensuous statement of intent then, at the opposite end of Sorabji’s career, the gnomic Frammenti aforistici (1977) distil his language to its absolute essence. Il tessuto d’arabeschi (1979) brings flute and string quartet into continual and increasingly fraught accord so that the moments of clarity glimpsed in its later stages assume an almost epiphanic import, whereas Fantasiettina atematica (1981) pits oboe against flute and clarinet for a brief yet eventful dialogue of bracingly sardonic wit.

Only two of these pieces have been previously recorded, so to have these works collated thus and in such accurate and idiomatic performances under the astute guidance of Chappell Kingsland is a primary reason for recommending this release to Sorabji’s devotees and doubters alike.