Erik Satie and Debussy

(also a tireless self-promoter, so he would have approved. i guess.)

Satie = Classic, but an utter fruitcake. Once you get into his work and the BIZARRENESS of all the stuff he wrote: A surrealist ballet in which, at the end of it, the audience realises they've been watching a bunch of sideshows instead of the main act. A piano piece "en forme d'un poire" - in the shape of a pear.

And other assorted oddities. I've been to the house he grew up in , Honfleur, France, and it's got a huge collection of stuff - he sort of considered himself a Renaissance man - did music, poetry, prose, painting, sculpture...

Debussy - misunderstood - not just wishywashy whole-tone scales and 'isn't Au Claire de Lune and the Arabesques lovely'. Of course they are, but there's the Images, the Études, ...

And for anyone who tries the Gymnopedies, take a look at the Gnossiennes too - even more beautiful in a very lonely sort of way.

Thread revive - GO!

I just requested the 5cd "Piano Works" box from the library to get a broader sampling of Satie. Any Debussy suggestions?

Yes! Too tired now but I can speak on this in the mawning.

Debussy suggestions:

Piano Music
- Suite Bergamesque (early, includes the famous Clair de Lune)
- Images
- Preludes

Late Chamber Music (I'm especially fond of these pieces, although they are leaner, drier, and more abstract, not his most "characteristic" work)
- Violin Sonata
- Cello Sonata
- Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp

Orchestral Music
- Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
- La Mer
- Jeux

a good starting point for those two could be branford marsalis "romances for saxophone". it starts with debussy's "l'isle joyeuse", then there are two of his arabesques and finally satie's gymnopédie no. 3. among other short pieces by fauré, ravel and stravinski etc. the saxophone adds a lyrical touch to the chamber orchestra i absolutely adore.

the whole of La Mer (esp. the 2nd mvmnt), Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Nuages, Sirènes for women's chorus and orchestra,Chansons de Bilitis, the two books of Images for piano, the whole of Pelléas et Mélisande, the string quartet, Estampes for piano...

only satie i'm familiar with is as played by reinbert de leeuw

anything else i should get into

go to ubuweb and listen to furniture music. ahead of its time, but most importantly just amazingly melancholic and atmospheric pieces

http://ubu.com/sound/satie_conceptual.html

For Debussy, I think it's sensible for you to start with the solo piano works. That's really his lab where he tries the most interesting things and hits his targets most resoundingly.

I think you were wanting a recommendation for a Debussy box to complement the Satie box you've bought? There aren't that many *recommendable* choices for box sets of Debussy's piano works right now. The one great box choice is Zoltan Kocsis' cheap box on Philips/Universal which also includes a couple of Ravel works. Kocsis is certainly one of the 5 greatest pianists still active and the recording quality on all his Debussy is amazing.

The problem is there's one major Debussy solo work which Kocsis never recorded: the 12 Etudes-- and those are kind Debussy's summa of everything he'd done while at the same time they strike out in a very bold new direction for him. So if you buy the Kocsis box (which is available as an Amazon download for 22 bucks) you will need to supplement with a recording of the Etudes. I'd recommend Uchida, Bavouzet, Paul Jacobs or Boffard. Maybe the Uchida makes the most sense.

Kocsis is a slightly willful interpreter-- you will definitely be hearing HIS Debussy. For a really excellent but more interpretively centrist set of Debussy, I would recommend the four recent discs released on Chandos by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. He might even be my first choice if you can afford four individual discs (or have a lot of eMusic credits to use).

Commonly recommended is the 1950s mono set of Walter Gieseking playing the solo works. You need to hear this, but I would start with something like the above in excellent sound quality, bcuz with Debussy you REALLY need to hear the play of the upper harmonics and the strange colors he's generating.

From the core of the piano pieces you can explore his other stuff, especially Pelleas et Melisande, the three late chamber sonatas (which are also part of the 'bold new direction' represented by the Etudes), La Mer and Jeux for orchestra, and his songs.

Also there's a great, great book about Debussy's piano music called Images: The Piano Music Of Claude Debussy by Paul Roberts if I recall the name correctly.

Hmmm...say you wanted to start with a single Debussy CD, what would you recommend?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HxMXJjoKL._SS500_.jpg

Part 1
Part 2

the 24 Preludes for solo piano. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet on Chandos. (I don't have a DL link for it tho)

not much to add really, but as a debussy lifer, I recommend:
ORCHESTRAL (get the jean martinon/Orchestre National de l'ORTF recordings if you can)
la mer
nocturnes
prelude...

PIANO
etudes, images & (my fave) children's corner suite (also in a good orchestral version)

CHAMBER
string quartet

Yeah I have a real sweet tooth for that orchestral adaptation of Children's Corner (it was made by Andre Caplet I think). Likewise Ansermet's orchestral arrangement of the Epigraphes Antiques.

also, one short cool piano piece 'hommage a haydn' which uses straight up be-bop jazz harmonies

http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/27/22/000c2227.jpeg
In FLAC

01. Preludes Book 1 1. Lent et grave.flac
02. Preludes Book 1 2. Modere.flac
03. Preludes Book 1 3. Anime.flac
04. Preludes Book 1 4. Modere.flac
05. Preludes Book 1 5. Tres modere.flac
06. Preludes Book 1 6. Triste et lent.flac
07. Preludes Book 1 7. Anime et tumultuex.flac
08. Preludes Book 1 8. Tres calme et doucement expressif.flac
09. Preludes Book 1 9. Moderement anime.flac
10. Preludes Book 1 10. Profondement calme.flac
11. Preludes Book 1 11. Capricieux et leger.flac
12. Preludes Book 1 12. Modere.flac
13. Preludes Book 2 1. Modere.flac
14. Preludes Book 2 2. Lent et melancolique.flac
15. Preludes Book 2 3. Mouvement de 'Habanera'.flac
16. Preludes Book 2 4. Rapide et leger.flac
17. Preludes Book 2 5. Calme.flac
18. Preludes Book 2 6.flac
19. Preludes Book 2 7. Lent.flac
20. Preludes Book 2 8. Scherzando.flac
21. Preludes Book 2 9. Grave.flac
22. Preludes Book 2 10. Tres calme et doucement triste.flac
23. Preludes Book 2 11. Moderment anime.flac
24. Preludes Book 2 12. Moderment anime.flac
25. Le soirs illumines par l'ardeur du charbon.flac
Total de 25 fichier(s), 192 Mb
Booklet 19Mb

Part 2

Part 2

Booklet Vol.1

Folks, policy is to not post direct download links here so please refrain...

Ack. Sorry.

Golliwog's Cakewalk = perfection

Thanks er I mean NAUGHTY turangulila.

Track 25 there is a small piece that was discovered only within the last decade or so. D wrote it and gave it to a country farmer dude in thanks for giving him some coal for his fire (this was during WWI and D was dying slowly of colon cancer.)

FWIW my favorite music in the universe is on that CD.

mmm La Mer. The music, going on, disturbing, haunting, ineffably strange and deeply moving, with all the great blind surging of the sea, and the thin flashes of sound, of light, of insight.

Google doodle goodness happening...

Solid contender for the most gorgeous piece of music ever written....

I'll rep for it.

The Claire de Lune to slay all Claires de Lune is the wizardly Ivan Moravec's recorded for Connoisseur Society in the 60s:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Ux5ctmY18&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dp0Ux5ctmY18#

I don't actually like that piece much, but I LOVE this composer. Perpetually underrated by the hipper echelon of classical music listeners, but not by any composers/classical musicians I'm aware of. I don't know why. Suppose he sounds super mainstream now, but even when film composers rip him off, it's because they want to sound "magical" or "mysterious". 100-year-old music that is ripped off to sound otherworldly -- that means something! (see also his Modernist partner-in-crime, Stravinsky)

Anyway, if nothing else, I got retweeted by both Zomby and the SF Friends of Chamber Music this morning re: Debussy, so here's to music critics and ILMers giving a damn.

CdL is far from my favorite debussy (book ii of the preludes since you're asking) but yeah he is my aesthetic hero and my favorite composer forever.

My hb debussy jag the last couple hours:

Pour le Piano, l'Isle Joyeuse, Masques, d'un Cahier d'Esquisses- jean efflam bavouzet (that last one prob the most slept on gem in his oeuvre)

En Blanc et Noir, Epigraphes Antiques- Anne Marie McDermott and lee luvisi

Children's Corner, Clair de Lune- Ivan Moravec (such a magician! had to encore The Snow is Dancing)

Preludes bk II- Richter live (BBC)