Erik Satie's iconoclastic ideas had a marked effect on the aesthetic of John Cage and his contemporaries, and he is considered a blueprint for future iconoclasm in composers like Steve Reich and Morton Feldman.
Performer Biography
Pianist Nicolas Horvath is known for organizing concerts of unusual length, sometimes lasting over twelve hours, including a performance of Erik Satie's 'Vexations'.
Compositional Technique
Erik Satie's 'Vexations' is an extraordinary, internally repetitive piece that features 11 of the 12 semitones of the chromatic scale and was intended to be repeated 840 times.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Erik Satie deliberately rejected Romantic expressiveness and virtuosity in his music, aiming for simplicity, clarity, precision, elegance, and economy.
Composition History
Erik Satie's 'Trois Gymnopédies' were written after he introduced himself as 'Erik Satie, gymnopédiste' to Rodolphe Salis, the 'bonimenteur' of the Chat Noir cabaret, and then had to justify the claim.
Instruments
The pieces composed by Erik Satie up to 1897 on this album are recorded on an 1881 Erard piano that once belonged to Cosima Wagner.
Recording & Production
This album features world premiere recordings of revised editions of Satie's piano works, prepared by Satie scholar Robert Orledge for the new Salabert Edition.
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