Satie Complete Works

'Les Six' (so named in 1920 by critic Henri Collet) hit the classical music scene with almost the same outrageous force with which the punk movement slammed into popular music in the 1970s and early '80s. It consisted of a group of six composers working in France: Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Germaine Tailleferre and Louis Durey. Their music was largely a reaction against Impressionism and Wagnerism and incorporated the ideas of Satie and Cocteau with the popular styles of the time: French vaudeville, American jazz and café music.

This is far and away the best playing of Satie's most popular works. Roge's other Satie disk is worth owning as well. Tempos are carefully chosen, with special attention to the subtleties each work presents. I also own Ciccolini and Thibaudet's complete Satie recordings and Roge outshines them at nearly every turn. A must own disc for all true Satie lovers.

Erik Satie - The Complete Solo Piano Music - Jean-Yves Thibaudet (2003) {5CD Box Set, Decca 473 620-2}
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© 2002, 2003 Decca Music | 473 620-2
Classical / Fantasies / Chamber Music / Improvisation / Piano

Jean-Yves Thibaudet has undertaken the complete solo piano works of another late nineteenth/early twentieth century French composer: Erik Satie. This even includes a sample of Vexations, that theme and two variations that Satie instructs to be played slowly, 840 times. It's interesting to compare Thibaudet's interpretations of these works with those of Aldo Ciccolini, who was one of Thibaudet's teachers. Overall, Thibaudet gives a less-Romantic interpretation, with less overt emotion and more introverted abstraction, but it is not overly academic.

This unusual collection is dedicated to the very popular style: minimal music. Over the years this has evolved from austere, almost strict repetition with tiny movements to a more varied and free approach to material and technique. This set includes works for piano solo by most of the famous minimal composers. Starting with initiator, if you will, Cage, and followed by the first generation entirely devoting itself to this style: Riley and Glass. The next generation is represented by John Adams and Michael Nyman. Dutch pianist Jeroen van Veen is fascinated by minimal music.