Customer Reviews

Satie: Piano Works (Selection)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Klara Kormendi plays with a beautiful sensitivity and precision, bringing out the subtleties in Satie's music. Satie's gift was to find depth and emotional power in music that might at first seem slight and unimportant. Satie made timeless music from fleeting impressions and snatches of polular song, all brought together with humor and grace. Kormendi finds all this in the music, and brings it out for the listener as if effortlessly, perfectly suiting Satie's own naturalistic style. If you are looking for the one essential Satie collection to take with you to a desert island, this is the one to pick.

Satie was an anomaly in the world of classical music and remains one of the most fascinating and idiosyncratic composers in music history. His music is like smoke on leather, and rain on concrete. A constant paradox but also a close companion. Gentle, smooth, and silky, as well as rough, abrasive, and saddening... often at the same time.

This compilation provides a brilliant journey through his musical world.

Klara Kormendi performs the pieces beautifully. Her sensitive interpretations reveal Satie's humour, eccentricity, and melancholy in equal measure. She manages to reveal the many fascinating contradictions in his compositions and plays with a genuinely emotive flair without ever drawing attention away from the pieces themselves.

Klara Kormendi's performances serve as a fantastic way to hear Satie for the first time, and also challenge those of any other pianist as the best way to here Satie's compositions full stop. Unlike other well known Satie interpreters (Ciccolini) she does not approach these pieces with a heavy hand or an over-zealous desire to over emphasise the wild, madcap aspects of his music.

This disc is a loving distillation of many of Satie's best works, and an absolutely gorgeous album to listen to in almost any situation. One of the most worthwhile purchases in my (brief but passionate) classical music listening life-time.

I gave this recording four stars primarily because of the fine playing of Klara Kormendi. If anyone doubts that Satie is a legitimate classicist, Kormendi's interpretations should convince them otherwise. However most of the selections are not my favorite Satie. One surprising discovery was "The man who carries large stones," a brilliant piece.

At least one or two of these pieces will be familiar to any movie-goer in the last 20 years. Satie creates a Parisian sound that is not distinctly Parisian but totally describes "Parisian". Each piece is about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes long. The compositions are economic but fun.

And it sounds great. For the price, what's to think about?