大象传媒

Donald Macleod explores five aspects of Satie. Today, his sharp, quirky, magical, satirical, absurdist sense of humour, which he once credited to Cromwell and Christopher Columbus.

Satie鈥檚 humour permeated everything he did 鈥� his music, his performance indications, his correspondence, his dress-sense, the whole tenor of his life. When asked to write a few biographical lines about himself for his new publisher, Eduard Demets, he included the insight: 鈥淏efore I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied by myself.鈥� On publication of his Sports et divertissements (Sports and amusements) he advised the pianist to turn each page 鈥渨ith a tolerant thumb and a smile鈥�. His score for Parade, a collaboration with Jean Cocteau, Leonid Massine and Pablo Picasso that became his greatest succ猫s de scandale, included parts for bouteillophone (a row of fifteen tuned bottles), revolver-shots, two sirens, a lottery wheel, 鈥渟plashy puddles鈥� and a typewriter. Music critic Jean Poueigh gave an unflattering review of the premi猫re; Satie responded by calling him 鈥渁n arse鈥�, for which he received a fine, a sentence of eight days in prison, and, so far, more than a century鈥檚 worth of excellent publicity.

Embryons dess茅ch茅s (No 1, 鈥榙鈥橦olothurie鈥� 鈥� Allez un peu)
Aldo Ciccolini, piano

Parade (ballet r茅aliste)
Orchestre de la Soci茅t茅 des Concerts du Conservatoire
Louis Auriacombe, conductor

Sports et divertissements
Aldo Ciccolini, piano

La Belle Excentrique 鈥� fantaisie s茅rieuse
Ensemble Die Reihe
Friedrich Cerha, conductor

Cin茅ma 鈥� entr鈥檃cte symphonique de Rel芒che (reduction for piano duet by Darius Milhaud)
Alexandre Tharaud, 脡ric Lesage, piano 4 hands

Produced by Chris Barstow