Comparison recording:
Aldo Ciccolini [ADD] EMI CZS 7 67282
2
When I bought the 2
CD Satie set with Aldo Ciccolini I naïvely
assumed that "Œuvres pour piano"
meant complete works. Now, I am delighted
to see a disk with almost all unfamiliar
music: there is more Satie than I imagined.
Only the Préludes Flasques
- pour un chien are duplicated between
the sets. Both pianists approaching
the music authentically, the performances
are all but identical; but Ciccolini
plays with slightly more drama(?), whereas
Schleiermacher plays ever so slightly
more cleanly. From a number of these
pieces it is obvious that Shostakovich,
among others, took Satie very seriously,
for there are frequent echoes of the
Op. 87 Preludes and Fugues.
In general these pieces
are somewhat more conventionally interesting
and less sarcastic and strange than
the group of pieces one often hears,
but none of them have the magical beauty
of the Gymnopédies or even the
Gnossiennes.
The Prelude is memorable,
but the Passacaglia and the Chorales
are at once arresting, especially given
Satie’s reported contempt for formal
musical structure. The Nocturnes are
also very much worth hearing. "Pantagruel"
is a reference to a work by Rabelais,
hardly surprising. If all the disks
in this set are as good as this one,
then a true Satie student will want
the whole set.
Schleiermacher receives
excellent recording and plays Satie
as one should—cleanly, precisely, firmly,
without focusing the music excessively
so the various ambiguities in the music
remain be free to resolve themselves
as they will in each listener’s perception.
Yet he accomplishes this with beautiful
tone, deep concentration, and genuine
affect.
Paul Shoemaker