Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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This box collects several recordings of Satie's piano music by Dutch pianist Reinbert de Leeuw, going back as far as 1977, with an English-language DVD (not reviewed, but the idea is attractive) including a fictionalized presentation of Satie's relationship with artist Suzanne Valadon (after they broke up, he hung in his window cataloging her faults, but the film apparently doesn't get to the fun stuff). The provenance of the music on the third CD, consisting mostly of songs and featuring soprano Marjanne Kweksilber, is unclear from the booklet, and it's a poor choice for the non-Francophone – no song texts are provided at all. The piano music from de Leeuw is another matter, however. It is immediately distinctive in its slow tempos and dreamy, rather lugubrious tone. Listeners who prize Satie for his light, rather impish humor, or even those used to the usual tempos of the orchestrated version of the Gymnopédie No. 1 (the piano version is heard on CD 1, track 15), may be put off initially by the performances here. Yet a look at the list of pieces and their recurring tempo indications (Lent, Grave) requires full consideration of de Leeuw's decisions. Along with Satie's iconoclasm and his quirky humor went a genuine mystical streak, expressed in an interest in Rosicrucianism as well as in music from the earlier eras of the Western tradition. It is this mystical streak that de Leeuw seeks to emphasize with his slowed-down Satie (who, let it be remembered, once wrote an 18-hour piece that called for a motive to be repeated 840 times). In works like the Danses gothiques (CD 2, tracks 14-19), some of which are under a minute long, de Leeuw presents a Satie who was less a gadfly to Debussy and Stravinsky than a predecessor of Mompou and, more distantly, the minimalists. The booklet presents a short, vivid picture of this unique composer. (You may have known that he walked from his piano-playing job in Montmartre to his drab suburban apartment to save on bus fare, but did you know that he carried a hammer to deal with muggers along the way?) These are not standard Satie readings, but they are worth having on hand for late-night listening – under the influence, perhaps, of absinthe, Satie's drink of choice.

Review by James Manheim, Allmusic.com

There are tons of recordings of Satie's solo piano music, too many of which sound like they were cranked out for use as bland wallpaper music in massage studios. Among the more reputable recordings are those from the 70s by Aldo Ciccolini, Frank Glazer, and Reinbert de Leeuw. Ciccolini's are perhaps the most popular, due to his efforts to record pretty much the entire Satie catalog. While I admire his dedication, I find his approach a bit too peppy, as if he's always worried about boring us. On the other hand, de Leeuw's glacial tempos are definitely not to everyone's taste, but I love it. He digs beneath Satie's wacky surface and finds the sublime clarity in this deceptively simple music, playing the spaces between the notes as much as the notes themselves. (If the slow motion idea puts you off, go for the Glazer, which is also lovely.)

This 3-CD boxed set - packaged in a square cardboard album with each disc in its own plastic-lined paper sleeve - brings together all three of de Leeuw's recordings of the early piano works, as well as his wonderful recording of Satie's songs with soprano Marjanne Kweksilber. As far as I know this is the first CD release of the latter, which has been unavailable for years. Great to finally have it back in print! Satie's songs are truly gems, closer to cabaret chansons than stuffy "lieder." There are a few jaunty numbers, but most of them share the mystical lucidity and spaciousness of the Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies, a simple melodic line with minimal accompaniment - notes hanging in mid-air. They have been recorded infrequently, usually bludgeoned by operatic singers with too much technique. Kweksilber brings a subdued, almost folky/early music rendering to these fragile songs that is just right. The "3 Melodies of 1886" and "Hymne" are stunningly beautiful. So between the songs and the piano solos, this could be considered a fairly definitive collection.

The special bonus here is the DVD. This 50-minute Canadian production is more contemporary dance film than historical bio-pic, with de Leeuw's solo recordings choreographed by Cirque du Soleil's Debra Brown for members of the company, some of whom are skilled contortionists as well as dancers. It's a fanciful scenario in which Satie, nursing his melancholy in the café Chat Noir on a dark and stormy night, encounters his ex-lover, the painter (and ex-trapeze artist) Suzanne Valadon. Punctuated by occasional voice-over drawn from Satie's writings, the absinthe-swilling cafe denizens go through a series of beautifully choreographed dances that are perfectly evocative of Satie's eccentricity and the whimsical proto-Surrealist hijinks of the Banquet Years.

The only disappointment is the accompanying booklet (text in English, French, and German). There is a decent character sketch of Satie and some background on the love story with Valadon, but information about the music itself is almost entirely absent. Not even the years of composition are listed, never mind the lyrics to the songs or who wrote them; most of the songs give a last name only, while others give no author credit at all. The original LP of the songs included all of that plus an informative essay that are all definitely missed here, as this aspect of Satie's work is so little-known. Some info on the "Satie & Suzanne" film beyond the basic credits would also have been welcome. It's a shame they didn't add just a few more pages to include any of that. This unfortunate oversight is the only thing that prevents me from giving this a 5-star rating.

Review by Steve Peters

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

Close

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

Close

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

Close

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Reinbert de Leeuw, Marianne Kweksilber - Erik Satie: Piano Music & Melodies (2006) 3CD + Bonus DVD 'Satie & Suzanne'

Close