Darius Milhaud - Piano Music

1997; 26 tracks
Francoise Choveaux, piano

Darius Milhaud was a member of that group Les Six, so his style is similar to that of Satie's. That said, I think Milhaud's solo piano music is even more delightful and charming that Satie's - it has a marvelous vibrance and an... exotic-ness that Satie lacks. This is most likely due to Milhaud's travels to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1917. He went there to work in the diplomatic entourage of his friend, the poet Paul Claudel, who was serving as the French ambassador to Brazil at the time. Inspired by the country's tropical landscape and rich culture, Milhaud seemed to have been particularly intrigued by the rhythm of Brazilian popular music, and the elusive, mournful, and liquid way Brazilian performers played this music.

The piano music of Milhaud takes me to his world and transforms every one of my senses to his. Listening to Milhaud I can feel the warm sunlight, taste the cold fruit, hear the birds calling, smell the earthen ground... and it calms me.

Milhaud once remarked that while he gazed into the heavens at night he "would feel rays and tremors converging on [him] from all points in the sky and from below the ground, simultaneous musics rushing towards [him] from all directions."

He expressed this ideal of simultaneity in his music with a technique called polytonality, the superimposition of chords and melodies in different keys.This collection of his piano music, and most importantly the 12 Saudades do Brazil, or "Fond Remembrances of Brazil," is incredibly stunning.

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Erik Satie - Cubist Works & Le Fils des Étoiles

2007; 38 tracks
Ronald Corp / Cologne Symphony Orchestra
Bojan Gorisek, piano

Although this music cannot and should not be considered truly "cubist," for whatever technique one might use to create "cubist music" Satie didn't use, Satie was a strong proponent of the style as well as a friend to the painter most readily associated with Cubism, Pablo Picasso.

This program includes the two large collaborations between Satie and Picasso, the ballets Parade (1917) and Mercure (1924) in both their piano and orchestral versions, along with three short pieces; the organ "Divertissement: La Statue Retrouvée," written for a masquerade ball that contained a short choreography with designs by Picasso, and "Trois Valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté," a suite written as a malicious jab at Ravel's stately piece.

Erik Satie's schizophrenic body of work has resisted canonization by the classical establishment in favor of avant-garde adulation and popular ubiquity: by turns, he’s either Vexations, paving the way for aleatory and process music, or he’s the superb, cinematic mood music of Gymnopédies. In the vacillation between these poles, we find the notion of "Furniture Music," which, as Brian Eno would articulate much later, is as excellent as it is ignorable. This recording draws out the explicit links between Satie’s work and the frenetic, sectarian art world of Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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2008; 17 tracks
Claire Chevallier, piano

The aim of this rather challenging disc, according to pianist Claire Chevallier in her erudite, thoughtful, and yet entertaining booklet notes, is to demonstrate "the existence of a continuous line of thought in Satie's life." The line of thought under discussion is Satie's unorthodox spirituality, which was by all accounts closely linked to his music. This murky, incantory yet rigorous recording highlights the mystic spirituality of Satie.

He flirted with Rosicrucianism (in a distinctive Parisian sect also attractive to Debussy) but loved to visit Notre-Dame. Later he founded a single-member church of his own, which he called the "Eglise Métropolitaine d'Art de Jésus Conducteur." The musical counterparts to these ideas were stark harmonies and modal tunes derived from Satie's studies of chant and medieval music. A lovely CD that features a beautiful look at both Satie's well-known works and his more cerebral.

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Claude Debussy - Jeux, La Mer, Nocturnes

1999; 6 tracks
Loren Maazel, conductor
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

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Maurice Ravel - Piano Concertos

2002; 5 tracks
Joaquín Achúcarro, pianist
Gilbert Varga, conductor

This lovely CD features the 2 Piano Concertos by Maurice Ravel. The first three tracks are his Piano Concerto in G Major, the fourth track the "Alborada del Gracioso, for orchestra," and, to end the album, the Piano Concerto in D Major (for the left hand). So beautiful.

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Erik Satie - Avant dernières pensées

2009; 71 tracks
Alexander Tharaud, pianist

New releases devoted to Erik Satie are rarities these days, as if the charm and quirkiness of his music have dulled and faded from fashion. But pianist Alexandre Tharaud's repackaging of 71 of Satie's miniatures is an ideal way of rekindling interest in this still-elusive and misunderstood figure. Tharaud devotes the first disc to solo piano pieces, in which the six marvelous Gnossiennes are threaded through a sequence that includes the Avent dernières pensées and wonderfully named sets such as the Embryons desséchés and Heures séculaires et instantanées.

In the seven piano pieces that make up Le Piège de Méduse, Tharaud "prepares" the piano by placing sheets of paper on the strings as Satie evidently did for the premiere, anticipating John Cage and George Crumb's invention by more than 20 years.

On the second disc, Tharaud is joined by a succession of other musicians for duos that range from the piano four-hands version of the Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire to tiny pieces for trumpet and piano and violin and piano, via songs with the tenor Jean Delescluse and the chanteuse Juliette. The chansons could easily be my favourite of the second disc, as Juliette's magical voice is never operatic but perfectly surreal.

There are so many amazing things to be found in Satie. Art that hides art.

Disc 1

Disc 2

Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy is often credited with being a pioneer in "Impressionist" music, but it is scarcely fitting to label his music without having any introduction to this unique composer's background, his environment (personally and historically), as well as his personality. He was born in France in 1862, and went on to become one of the most popular composers EVER. Believe me, many people who have never given classical music a listen still know who Debussy is. (Is this because of his music's demeaning appearance in Twilight? Perhaps). Anyways, the music of Debussy "established a new concept of tonality in European music," according to Réti. He not only deviated from the more Romantic tonal styles of his time, but he also helped move the classical music scene into the Modernist era. This is primarily because he wanted to, as Ezra Pound put it, "make it new."

Here, in Debussy's own words, is this shown:

"I am trying to do 'something different' -- an effect of reality... what the imbeciles call 'impressionism', a term which is as poorly used as possible, particularly by the critics, since they do not hesitate to apply it to Turner, the finest creator of mysterious effects in all the world of art."

Hmmm, mysterious effects...in all the world of art... I like that. I love his piano music, and am here posting it in it's entirety, but nearly all of his compositions give off the innocent feel of a child searching for a hidden world far away from the playground. In his préludes especially, which are among some of my favorite pieces in all classical piano music, I am reminded of the dreaminess of childhood. I often associate this feeling with trying to recall a dream, or attempting to recreate one that I really liked as accurately as possible. It's a journey... My favorite is La fille aux cheveux de lin, The Girl With Flaxen Hair. The feeling I get while I listen to that piece is indescribable, like articulating something that doesn't exist in the world of words.

In the end, Debussy's music is marvelous - not to be trivialized or commercialized, but also not overlooked.

Piano Music

Walter Gieseking plays Debussy - 24 Préludes

Claude Debussy's Préludes are two sets of pieces for solo piano. They are divided into two separate livres, or books, of twelve preludes each. These beautiful pieces of music were written between 1909 and 1913.

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1. Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi)
2. Voiles (Veils or sails)
3. Le vent dans la plaine (The Wind in the Plain
4. Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir (The sounds and fragrances swirl through the evening air)
5. Les collines d'Anacapri (The Hills of Anacapri)
6. Des pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the Snow)
7. Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest (What the West Wind has seen)
8. La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair)
9. La sérénade interrompue (Interrupted Serenade)
10.La cathédrale engloutie (The Engulfed Cathedral)
11. La danse de Puck (Puck's Dance)
12. Minstrels
13. Brouillards (Mists)
14. Feuilles mortes (Dead Leaves)
15. La puerta del Vino (The Wine Gate)
16. Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses ("Fairies are exquisite dancers")
17. Bruyères (Heather)
18. Général Lavine
19. La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (The Terrace of Moonlit Audiences)
20. Ondine (Undine)
21. Hommage à S. Pickwick
22. Canope (Canopic jar)
23. Les tierces alternées (Alternating Thirds)
24. Feux d'artifice (Fireworks)

12 Études and various other pieces

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Images, Estampes, 3 Pieces for the Piano, and Children's Corner

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Suite Bergamasque (Clair de lune) and various other pieces

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Fauré Complete Piano Music

Gabriel Fauré was a French composer of the late 19th century, influenced by composers such as Liszt and Schumann. I have made a link consisting of all his solo/duet/random piano music, some of which has been transcribed by Fauré or others from the orchestra to the piano. It has been split into 3 parts. All solo music is performed by Jean Martin. For pieces that require two pianos or four hands, pianists Patrick de Hooge and Pierre-Alain Volondat perform. Please enjoy some beautiful post-romantic/impressionist piano music! More info here.



Part 1:
- 13 Nocturnes
- 13 Barcarolles
- 1 Ballade

Part 2:
- Dolly Suite
- 6 Impromptus
- 9 Préludes

Part 3:
- Pavane in F-sharp minor, op. 50
- Masques et bergamesques
- Pelléas et Mélisande
- 4 Valses-caprices
- 1 Mazurka
- Themes and Variations
- 3 Romances



LINKS:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3