 Listen to samples at Musicline. Click here ...CD is only available in German language up to now.
The original title is: SPORTS ET DIVERTISSEMENTS.
Thoughts on the performance of Satie’s works ...
Erik Satie was a person who left all of his academically acquired
abilities virtually unexploited, taking instead an extremely individual
approach to negotiating the artistic currents of his time. His works were
not seldom met with disapproval, for many considered his criticism of
bourgeois listening habits and performance practices all too brusque.
His musically "Satierical” cabaret was celebrated in the Parisian
nightclub Chat Noir — often in several media at once. Departure from
convention as well as extraordinary diversity and capriciousness are the
qualities of Satie’s oeuvre which have always led to as much controversy
as admiration in its reception by the public.
Satie was not only a composer, but also an ingenious draughtsman and
lyric writer. His work is informed with a specific multi-mediality that
cannot be comprehended purely as music. It is thus highly problematical
to perform his compositions — complex interweavings of text, image
and music — within the framework of a conventional piano concert.
Mere transmission to an audio recording medium is likewise often
insufficient. In order to convey Satie’s work to the public in an authentic
manner, the interpreter must open him or herself to its inherent multi-
media character; only thus can he or she do justice to these works of art.
The integration of music, poetry and drawing can be experienced
particularly well in "Sports et divertissements.” Image, text and tone
merge in this synthesis of the arts with such totality that its intended effect
is attained only when all three elements are perceived simultaneously.
With the interdisciplinary "Sound and Picture Book” we hope to have in
some way approximated the diverse and perceptually complex
spectrum of the sports and amusement scenes depicted in these works.
As you listen to them, as to the yearning waltzes, chansons, bizarre
songs and piano pieces underlaid with eccentric anecdotes, we wish
you much pleasure and amusement!
In addition to being a composer,
Satie was also an ingenious
lyric writer and draughtsman.
Musically "Satierical” cabaret
in the Chat Noir of Paris.
A must for every Satie interpreter:
the presentation of all facets of
his works — tone, image and
word — to the public.
A synthesis of the arts
Sports et divertissements
Chansons and songs,
Piano pieces underlaid with
stories
Erik Satie (1866 - 1925)
This album concludes JOHANNES CERNOTA's trilogy on the outstanding French composer and artist Erik Satie. It is an album of songs with the unusual piece SPORTS ET DIVERTISSSEMENTS (Sport and entertainment) at is core - 20 compositions and short poems by Satie to illustrations from 1914.
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