Erik Satie: The Complete Solo Piano Music [BOX SET]

Alfred Éric Leslie Satie (Honfleur, 17 May 1866 – Paris, 1 July 1925) was a French composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie.
Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrograph" or "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures (and writes down) sounds") preferring this designation to that of "musician," after having been called "a clumsy but subtle technician" in a book on contemporary French composers published in 1911.
In addition to his body of music, Satie also left a remarkable set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications, from the dadaist 391 to the American Vanity Fair. Although in later life he prided himself on always publishing his work under his own name, in the late nineteenth century he appears to have used pseudonyms such as Virginie Lebeau and François de Paule in some of his published writings.
Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde. He was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music and the Theatre of the Absurd.


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. The music hall pieces, such as Je te veux and Le Piccadilly have a good dancing tempo that doesn't give often to rubato. In places, repeated figures and phrases do not vary much in speed or volume, which is how most musicians are instructed to add interest to repeated motives. On the other hand, the "Enfantines" pieces, written for children to play, are performed with a great deal of subtle sensitivity. Indeed, Satie's particular (and sometimes peculiar) performance notes are made for interpretations as individual as each performer and are what make his music difficult to perform. Thibaudet certainly skillfully conveys his interpretations to the listener, with minimal additional explanation needed in the liner notes.
Most often, what you hear is what the title of the work implies. One note on the sound quality: at the end of the second disc in the music hall pieces, the sound quality between the tracks is noticeably different, as if they were made on different pianos or in different studios. ~ Patsy Morita, All Music Guide

This selection has been recorded at the following venues: St. George's Church, Bristol, England; Potton Hall, Suffolk, England; Milan Auditorium, Italy.
The recording dates at the above venues are: 19-22 December 2001; 20-23 February, 14-17 June and 3 September 2002.