After the Rain...The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie

Erik Satie (Composer), Pascal Rogé (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Pascal Rogé
• Composer: Erik Satie
• Audio CD (March 12, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Decca
• ASIN: B00000427P
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,417 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Gymnopédies (3), for piano (also orchestrated by Debussy): Gymnopedie No 01

2. Gymnopédies (3), for piano (also orchestrated by Debussy): Gymnopedie No 02

3. Gymnopédies (3), for piano (also orchestrated by Debussy): Gymnopedie No 03

4. Gnossiennes (6), for piano: Gnossienne No 01

5. Gnossiennes (6), for piano: Gnossienne No 02

6. Gnossiennes (6), for piano: Gnossienne No 03

7. Gnossiennes (6), for piano: Gnossienne No 04

8. Gnossiennes (6), for piano: Gnossienne No 05

9. Gnossiennes (6), for piano: Gnossienne No 06

10. Nocturnes (5) for piano: Nocturne I

11. Nocturnes (5) for piano: Nocturne II

12. Nocturnes (5) for piano: Nocturne III

13. Nocturnes (5) for piano: Nocturne IV

14. Nocturnes (5) for piano: Nocturne V

15. Avant-dernières pensées (Next-to-last thoughts), pieces (3) for piano

16. Pièces froides (Cold Pieces), pieces (6) for piano: Trois airs à fuir

17. Pièces froides (Cold Pieces), pieces (6) for piano: Trois danses de travers

18. Rêveries nocturnes (2), for piano

19. Prélude de La Porte héroïque du ciel (Prelude to 'The Heroic Gate of Heaven'), incidental music for piano (or orchestra)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Satie's Best..., June 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: After the Rain...The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie (Audio CD)

*
This is one of the best Satie discs available. Why? Well, the performances are superb, the recording very clear; but moreover, what Rogé has done here is select all Satie's lovely and haunting adagio pieces from Satie's entire oeuvre for solo piano.
This is signifigant because apart from these pieces, the remainder of Satie's piano works consists of frantic, 'humorous' pieces that are supposed to be 'funny'. (Perhaps they were valuable as novelties during Satie's own day, as evocations of Modernism, Futurism, Vorticism, etc.)

Rogé has salvaged all the quite excellent slow and meditative pieces of unusual harmonies and formed them into one fabulous recording.

The recording was made in one continous session: it seems Rogé performed from memory. The sound is quite excellent: it sounds as if it were made in a large open-air studio with windows open to the cityscape, yet sounds from the street are not an issue here.

(The whole technique of recording a solo piano has a lot of theory to it: Glenn Gould, for one, experimented with several techniques: for example, close microphoning; ranked microphoning; distant microphoning, etc.)
It seems plain that here Rogé was going for a completely natural sound--what one would hear being in the same room, present at the performance.
Rogé succeded, and the recording has a very intimate, live timbre with much ambience.
*

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sound quality is good, December 25, 2004

By 

Peter Rasmussen (MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After the Rain...The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie (Audio CD)

Replying to review titled "Still Raining, I think"

The reviewer complains that the sound quality is bad because it is not digital DDD or ADD. I have the record, and my opinion is that the prior reviewer was hearing the sound of the room, not the sound of the analog recording equipment (if it is indeed analog and not digital). It sounds natural and beautiful. It does not sound like a dead quiet studio. Don't be discouraged by the prior review. Although I know about recording I don't know enough to comment on the quality of the performance or composition. I just wanted to note that the sound quality is fine.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only Satie disc you'll ever need!, January 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: After the Rain...The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie (Audio CD)

Roge is a master when it comes to performing the works of the impressionist composers. With Satie, he is both playful and gentle, offering the perfect amount of expression to the Trois Gymnopedies and the six Gnossienes. Satie's work pinnacled in solo piano pieces, and Pascal Roge does not disappoint. Put your CD player on repeat and set it on your headboard before you go to sleep at night!