The Best of Erik Satie

Erik Satie (Artist), Jérôme Kaltenbach (Artist), Klára Körmendi (Artist), Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 16, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B00004SYFP
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,430 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #1 in	Music > Classical > Ballets & Dances > Baroque Dance Suites > Sarabande
  #5 in	Music > Classical > Featured Composers, A-Z > ( S ) > Satie, Erik
  #13 in	Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Vocal & Song

Editorial Reviews

From ClassicsToday.com

For me, the real "Best of Satie" would include at least

excerpts from the opera Socrate and the ballet Parade. But this is a

nice overview of the eccentric composer's keyboard gems, culled from

Klára Körmendi's excellent Satie cycle for Naxos. Many pianists

take Satie's wistful melodic sensibility as license to let the music

wallow and droop. Körmendi will have none of that. Her sensitive,

expertly colored playing brings uncommon, refreshing urgency to the

first three Nocturnes, the well-worn Gymnopédies, and all six

Gnossiennes. Moreover, she has a way of making the composer's

idiosyncratic expressive indications audible without hitting listeners

over the head. The disc concludes with the Gymnopédies in their

familiar orchestrations by Debussy (Nos. 1 & 3) and Roland-Manuel

(No. 2). The French orchestra plays rather patchily in the first but

redeems itself with some very nice playing in the other two. No. 3

features a lovely oboe soloist surrounded by silvery, reed-organ-like

high strings. If you're looking for a Satie piano music start-up kit,

this is the one.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Got Satie?, July 26, 2005

By	Shota Hanai (Torrance, CA) - See all my reviews

... Well folks. This may be the perfect album to get started. This features some of the best-known works by the wierd and witty Erik Satie, including the Gymnopedies (both the original piano and the orchestrated versions), the Gnossiennes, just to name a few.

The performance done by pianist Klara Kormendi is relatively plain and simple, just as Satie might have wanted. Some of his music is actually not too difficult to play... A great CD at a budget price. Kudos to Naxos for a good performance at a good price.

Also, what I'm equally impressed is the fact that in this "appreciation" album, the listener will actually be listening to many "sets" of pieces. Some of those albums (Beethoven and Mozart for example) are mere collections of selected tracks, many just one movement of a large work, such as a symphony. In some you will only be listening to selected numbers of different large "sets" of pieces. In Chopin's for example one may listen only few of the 20+ nocturnes (No. 2 for example), 15+ waltzes, and 20+ mazurkas he wrote, so one would not feel complete listening to the whole "cycles" of short pieces. Satie, fortunatley, prefered using tiny sets of pieces, most of them only comprising of three movments each. Plus each piece is short. ALL of the three Gymnopedies. ALL of the six Gnossiennes. ALL of the three Sarabandes. ALL of the three nocturnes. One can already feel happy listening to couple "sets" within a single CD.

Once again, this may be the perfect album to get started with Erik Satie. And get ALL out of those pieces!!!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction to Satie's music, May 30, 2004

By	Platonism (Montreal) - See all my reviews

'Best ofs' rarely do justice to classical music composers; the compilations' limited space often results in selections which are cut from their context, short excerps of longer works, etc. This Naxos release has none of these problems. It wisely offers complete opuses (i.e. all three Gymnopedies, Sarabandes and Nocturnes, all six Gnossiennes), and its focus on pieces for solo piano (the only orchestrations included here were not done by Satie himself) gives the disc a lot of cohesion. It doesn't sound much like a typical 'Best of' - this isn't a drawback but a virtue! - and rather is a thoughtful selection of some of Satie's most interesting works. The playing is also excellent: I was personally accustomed to slower Gymnopedies, but these faster versions are worth hearing; the beautiful Gnosiennes are also nicely rendered. This recording emphasizes the 'openness' of Satie's music: the (interior) spaces it evokes can become a springboard for reflexion, relaxation, or both depending on the listener's mood. Those who are new to Satie should definitely purchase this disc.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simplistic Beauty, January 25, 2002

By	"fsubilly" (Tampa, Fl) - See all my reviews

A good compilation of Erik Satie's work, though missing a few notables (the only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5). During his life Satie didn't intend for his music to be highlighted, rather he prefered the music to be a "backround" to everyday life....as his pieces were played at concerts, Satie encouraged the the crowd to talk, carry on...behave as if nothing of paticular interest was occuring. He felt his music was not for special attention, and would rather it play as a soundtrack to a typical day. With apologies to Satie, this work is simply too beautiful to not stop and take notice.