spyro gyro's original cinema
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What are you listening to? Part III
- Thread starter S.B.G
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Going for a little throw back today. One of my favorites from the album "Brutal Planet".
Alice Cooper - Cold Machines
Alice Cooper - Cold Machines
Erik Satie: Avant-Dernières Pensées (Penultimate Thoughts)
Performers: Alexandre Tharaud (piano) and some accomplished friends
Label info: Harmonia Mundi HMC 902017.18 - 2 CDs
Recorded: April/May 2008
This is unforgettable. It’s not your grandfather’s Satie collection --only the first of Satie’s beloved but by now practically notorious Gymnopédies is on it. All six Gnossiennes are there but spread around the 42 tracks on the first of the two discs. But honestly everyone should have this, so witty and fun with Satie’s parodies, puns, riffs on distinctly non-French themes like American rag (“La Diva de L’Empire”) and some with Latin beats.
Included is one of the all time sardonic ripostes to another composer: “Three pieces in the form of a pear” is seven pieces, written after Debussy had told Satie he should pay more attention to form. Debussy got trolled. Satie’s captions for the wrappers around the three formal movements are a stitch. The intro “commencement” is followed by “more of same”... at end we have “furthermore” and “restated”. The formal movements have sly tempo indicators, with the first two fairly mundane but the third tagged as “Brutal”.
And of course Tharaud is Tharaud. In the piece “Medusa’s Trap” where Satie had specified a prepared piano au John Cage --with strips of paper inserted among the strings-- Tharaud added also at least some bits of metal and plastic and who knows what else for good measure. Other recordings of this work as far as I can tell have often omitted even a nod to Satie’s instructions.
In the second disc, more Satie and some that I had not heard; they’re droll and wonderful. These are performed by Tharaud and friends - pianist Eric LeSage in four-hand works, tenor Jean Delescluse, trumpeter David Guerrier, violinist Isabelle Faust and chanteuse Juliette [Juliette Noureddine] who gives four vocal pieces a charmingly informal ambience that other performers have often sung more as if excerpts from opera were at hand. I can’t recommend this more highly. Alexandre Tharaud is such a gem.
Performers: Alexandre Tharaud (piano) and some accomplished friends
Label info: Harmonia Mundi HMC 902017.18 - 2 CDs
Recorded: April/May 2008
This is unforgettable. It’s not your grandfather’s Satie collection --only the first of Satie’s beloved but by now practically notorious Gymnopédies is on it. All six Gnossiennes are there but spread around the 42 tracks on the first of the two discs. But honestly everyone should have this, so witty and fun with Satie’s parodies, puns, riffs on distinctly non-French themes like American rag (“La Diva de L’Empire”) and some with Latin beats.
Included is one of the all time sardonic ripostes to another composer: “Three pieces in the form of a pear” is seven pieces, written after Debussy had told Satie he should pay more attention to form. Debussy got trolled. Satie’s captions for the wrappers around the three formal movements are a stitch. The intro “commencement” is followed by “more of same”... at end we have “furthermore” and “restated”. The formal movements have sly tempo indicators, with the first two fairly mundane but the third tagged as “Brutal”.
And of course Tharaud is Tharaud. In the piece “Medusa’s Trap” where Satie had specified a prepared piano au John Cage --with strips of paper inserted among the strings-- Tharaud added also at least some bits of metal and plastic and who knows what else for good measure. Other recordings of this work as far as I can tell have often omitted even a nod to Satie’s instructions.
In the second disc, more Satie and some that I had not heard; they’re droll and wonderful. These are performed by Tharaud and friends - pianist Eric LeSage in four-hand works, tenor Jean Delescluse, trumpeter David Guerrier, violinist Isabelle Faust and chanteuse Juliette [Juliette Noureddine] who gives four vocal pieces a charmingly informal ambience that other performers have often sung more as if excerpts from opera were at hand. I can’t recommend this more highly. Alexandre Tharaud is such a gem.
I absolutely must check this out: I really love Satie.
Brilliant post, and I love Satie, too. Actually, I find myself echoing @mobilehaathi's post below.
I first heard the "by now practically notorious Gymnopédies" when I was at school - a teenager - and it absolutely bowled me over: It was used in an excellent documentary about the poet William Butler Yeats, and the shot of the actor playing the poet (Barry McGovern - an outstanding Irish actor, who physically resembled Yeats) rowing across a small lake, under the moody grey clouds of an overcast lowering sky, to the sound of Satie - Gymnopédie No 1 on piano - as the poem that was under discussion at that point in the documentary was being recited - was not just unforgettable - it left me speechless with stunned and stupefied - almost pained - delight - it was one of those moments that set standards of aesthetic, musical and cultural beauty in your mind, the sort that are etched and imprinted indelibly. And permanently. Well, it did for me that evening.
In a way, it is a pity that it has become almost a cliché, because it is a flawless and exquisite and haunting piece of music.
I never forgot that haunting piece, though it took me a few years to discover what it was called and who composed it. It was also surprisingly hard to lay hands on, and (believe it or not) rarely played in those days. Eventually, around the time I graduated from university with my first degree, one of my presents to myself was an excellent LP of the music of Satie.
Actually, I still remember that day and how happy I was with my haul: It wasn't long before the actual graduation, and the start of postgrad studies, and I was in the capital on a short holiday, a break of a few days. I bought five LPs: one of Mozart, the Satie one - which I fell upon with inexpressible joy when I saw it, the film music of John Barry, - which I had always loved - P. I. Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker Suite - and the Go-Betweens (Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express).
Likewise.
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Thank you.
I have just now placed an order for it.
Amazon, damn you, (when I clicked, a box flashed up, and in it, they had written, "I notice that you have bought books from us in the past. Would you like an app to....?" No, I would not, thank you very much).
Now, I would far prefer to be able to order this from a bricks and mortar music store, and, it is not just convenience, but that they don't really exist anymore. I loved those old style stores where you spent years of your life rummaging and trawling and crawling through their music collections, often emerging with more than you had intended, as unexpected purchases were sometimes added to what you had originally planned to buy.
Anyway, thank you @LizKat; this looks amazing and your post made it irresistible. And I love the Gnossiennes; that LP I wrote about coming across - and buying - in the post above, contained four of them; actually, that was the first time I had ever heard them.
Erik Satie: Who else?
The "notorious" Gymnopédie No 1: Actually, I haven't listened to it in a while.
Still gorgeous. Still haunting. Still perfect.
The "notorious" Gymnopédie No 1: Actually, I haven't listened to it in a while.
Still gorgeous. Still haunting. Still perfect.
That documentary sounds wonderful, was it audio w/ just static photos, like a radio performance later put up with some photographs, or a film studio performance?
I too am very fond of the Gymnopédies and the Gnossiennes. I bothered to make a playlist of the latter from the performances on the Tharaud recording, even though he was hardly incorrect in scattering the performances across tracks of that recording. The 4th-7th are often enough performed independently as they were written later and at different times, and I believe they were only published after Satie's death. The six run only 15 minutes or so and make for a great coffee break.
That documentary sounds wonderful, was it audio w/ just static photos, like a radio performance later put up with some photographs, or a film studio performance?
I too am very fond of the Gymnopédies and the Gnossiennes. I bothered to make a playlist of the latter from the performances on the Tharaud recording, even though he was hardly incorrect in scattering the performances across tracks of that recording. The 4th-7th are often enough performed independently as they were written later and at different times, and I believe they were only published after Satie's death. The six run only 15 minutes or so and make for a great coffee break.
The documentary was a TV documentary - and the music matched the motion of Yeats (Barry McGovern) rowing a small boat across the lake - the poem could well have been "Wild Swans At Coole" - but, I just recall that the whole thing was exquisitely and absolutely perfect, poem, setting, music.
This sort of thing (using actors, music, motion to support the telling of a tale) is second nature nowadays, but that was TV of quite a few decades ago when using such strategies to tell a story (along with the much more limited budgets of the time) meant that this wasn't usual, and it absolutely blew my mind. As a result, not only did I not forget Gnmnopédie No 1, I couldn't forget it.
In fact, the very first time I was able to lay hands on a copy of that music, was when it appeared as the B side of a single by Gary Numan (of Tubeway Army).
On the B side (which I had first heard on radio, a pop channel), he did a synthesiser version of Gymnopédie No 1. Actually, - as I realised once I had the 45rpm disc - while paying a weird and unexpected homage to the composer, he managed to murder, and massacre the music.
So, strange to relate, I went out and actually bought the single for the B side alone, mangled, murdered and massacred though it was, rather than the A side which didn't really interest me. And it meant that I now knew the full name of the piece, how it was spelt, and who had composed it.
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Today's post also brought the CD "Passages" by Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass, so thank you, @mobilehaathi, for recommending it.
For some reason, I woke up with this on my mind, so I had to give it a listen:
"The Red Telephone" - from the (brilliant, timeless, seminal) album "Love Forever Changes" by Arthur Lee (and Love). An album I could listen to on a loop. Simply superb.
