Satie: Piano Works Vol. 4 – Körmendi, Eckhardt, Naxos (CD)

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Product Details

• UPC: 0730099569927
• Catalogue Number: 8.550699
• Brand/Label: Naxos
• Composer: Erik Satie
• Performers: Klára Körmendi, piano · Gábor Eckhardt, piano (four-hands works)
• Release Year: 1994 (recorded 8–11 February 1994)
• Genre: Classical – Piano
• Country of Producing: [confirm] (no "Made in" line visible in the provided photos)

Product Features

• Format: Audio CD, DDD (fully digital recording), Stereo
• Total playing time: 67:40
• Series: Naxos Satie Piano Works, Vol. 4
• Includes both solo piano works and works for piano four hands
• Cover artwork: The River, by Monet

Overview

Satie's reputation as the composer of gentle, minimalist Gymnopédies only tells half the story — this volume is where the other Satie shows up, the one who titled a suite "Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear" out of spite after a critic told him his music lacked form. Klára Körmendi handles the solo works with a dry, unsentimental touch that suits Satie's deadpan humor, while she and Gábor Eckhardt team up for the four-hands pieces, including the wonderfully theatrical La Belle Excentrique. The playful streak runs throughout: Le Piège de Méduse reads more like incidental theater music than a concert piece, and the titles alone (a movement literally called "Being jealous of a friend who has a fat head") tell you this isn't music that takes itself too seriously. Underneath the jokes, though, Satie's harmonic language is genuinely ahead of its time — spare, modal, and quietly influential on everyone from Ravel to minimalist composers decades later. A good disc for anyone who thinks they've "done" Satie via the Gymnopédies and wants to hear the stranger, funnier corners of his output.

Interesting Facts

• Satie titled his "Trois Morceaux en Forme de Poire" (Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear) as a deliberate joke after Debussy suggested his music lacked structure — the piece pointedly has more than three movements.
• Le Piège de Méduse was written as incidental music for Satie's own absurdist play of the same name, blending theater and concert music.
• Several movement titles on this disc are pure Satie deadpan comedy, including "Being jealous of a friend who has a fat head" from Peccadilles importunes.
• La Belle Excentrique, for piano four hands, was composed for the dancer and performer Caryathis and blends can-can, waltz, and march idioms with tongue firmly in cheek.
• This recording was made at the Unitarian Church in Budapest, a venue frequently used by Naxos for its Hungarian-based piano recording projects.

Track Listing

1. Le Piccadilly – 1:44
2. Le poisson rêveur (The Dreamy Fish): Esquisse – 6:22
3. Le piège de Méduse (sept pièces pour piano) – 4:05
4. La Diva de l'Empire (Intermezzo Américain) – 2:28
5. Jack-in-the-Box – 7:48
6. Vieux sequins et vieilles cuirasses – 4:27 (I. Chez le marchand d'or · II. Danse Cuirassée · III. La défaite des Cimbres)
7. Heures séculaires et instantanées – 3:40 (I. Obstacles venimeux · II. Crépuscule matinal · III. Affolements granitiques)
8. Peccadilles importunes – 2:03 (I. Être jaloux de son camarade qui a une grosse tête · II. Lui manger sa tartine · III. Profiter de ce qu'il a des cors aux pieds pour lui prendre son cerceau)

Piano Works for Four Hands

1. Trois morceaux en forme de poire* – 12:12
2. En habit de cheval* – 6:19 (Choral · Fugue litanique · Autre choral · Fugue de papier)
3. Trois petites pièces montées* – 3:34 (I. De l'enfance de Pantagruel · II. Marche de Cocagne · III. Jeux de Gargantua)
4. Aperçus désagréables* – 4:39 (I. Pastorale · II. Choral · III. Fugue)
5. La belle excentrique (Fantaisie sérieuse) – 7:38 (Grande Ritournelle · I. Marche franco-lunaire · II. Valse du mystérieux baiser dans l'œil · III. Can-can Grand Mondain) with Gábor Eckhardt, piano

Publishers

Naxos, part of the Naxos Music Group, recorded at the Unitarian Church, Budapest (producer Ibolya Tóth, engineer János Bohus). Distributed by MVD Music and Video Distribution GmbH, Unterhaching/Munich, Germany.

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