Erik Satie Compositeur de Musique

Category: Music

Used starting at $10.94

New starting at $14.21

Buy it

Product Description

On this disc Italian avant-garde accordionist Teodoro Anzellotti spins out the charming, lilting, and quite familiar solo piano melodies of Erik Satie (the entire "Sports et Divertissements" and "Gnossiennes," the always popular "Three Elegant Waltzes by a Squeamish Pansy," and others). While this music was composed in perhaps Satie's most humorous period, the accordion does not emphasize that quality or turn it into kitsch. Instead Anzellotti takes Satie's mostly linear melodies and teases them out into clouds of chords, like straight hair is teased into a burr, a rat's nest. Not that the music becomes an absolute blur, but instead the crisp and sharp are changed into something more warm and enveloping. Through his techniques, the transitions faintly overlap and tempos are ever-so-slightly halted, all with the effect of rendering the very familiar less so. Beautiful. --Robin Edgerton

Product Details

Customer Reviews

Review by Paulo Goucha, 2009-11-24

One of the best pages is here. Reverie du pauvre.
Turn off the lights and hear it...

Review by J. Vitkus, 2006-11-05

Jules Massenet breaths life into the work of Erik Satie through the senuous, surging outpourings of a spare accordion. Outstanding transciption and recording!

Review by svf, 2001-03-19

This CD is a collection of Erik Satie solo piano pieces performed on solo accordion... it sounds like... Erik Satie... on accordion. Which is a good thing! Very tastefully done, Mr. Anzellotti sticks to the written notes without over-interpretation or campiness. Heard on accordion, the pieces take on a uniquely dreamy, nostalgic, and slightly surreal quality, especially the exotic "Gnossiennes." The familiar "Gymnopedie #1" sounds especially lovely in this setting, and the jauntier sections of "Sports and Divertissments" benefit from the playful quality of the accordion. While an hour of solo accordion is a bit much in one sitting, this is a wonderful release for those wanting to hear Satie's music in a refreshing new light. Mr. Satie himself would be pleased, no doubt! (And as usual, the Winter & Winter label outdoes itself with beautiful packaging and design!)