Track Listing

1. No. 1 - Lent
2. No. 2 - Avec étonnement
3. No. 3 - Lent
4. No. 4
5. No. 5
6. No. 6
7. 1.
8. 2.
9. 3.
10. 4.
11. Petite ouverture à danser
12. No. 1
13. No. 2
14. No. 3
15. No.1
16. No.2
17. No.3

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48107 in Music
• Released on: 2000-10-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 65 minutes

Customer Reviews

A perfect interpretation
I do not agree with A.J. Simmonds' recommendation. This is how Satie should be played: slowly, to convey the full force of Satie's inventions. Satie's music is very powerful and Reinbert de Leeuw (the performer) will allow you to discover it on your own. He goes out from the usual mould, others have given pretty, romantic interpretations and in this way they have completely destroyed Satie's artistic achievement. But this is a minimalistic playing that is perfect for the material, de Leeuw only understood what others couldn't.

Beautifully different piano music
Satie first came to my attention when listening to the radio. After a little pondering, I plumped for this particular CD as it included the gymnopedies which had first delighted my ears. It is a wonderfully relaxing concoction of piano music, and very different to other classical music that I have come across. It has a quaint irregularity that I love, and the gentle succession of tracks will take you away to a beautifully serene mental state, it has never failed to make me smile yet. It would definitely rank as one of my favourite CDs, which is how it came to be lost to me!! It was in the car that I blew up a couple of months ago, and so I am very definitely going to replace it at some point. I did think about trying to find a cheaper Satie compilation, but as it is this one that has always captured my imagination, and warmed my soul, it is this one that I shall buy again!!

Mysterious and innocent music
If you have never heard of this music, you will have heard it played. All through my life I seem to have heard this in one place or another. It is, therefore, literally haunting music. This rendition is all solitary piano - no orchestras. So it is presented as an intimate secret between composer and listner. There is something child-like about it, as odd and difficult to understand as a child's imagination is to an adult. There is a playfulness that sounds serious and a joy that sounds sad. Owing to this, it cannot fail to captivate. It is one of my most treasured recordings and I know it will remain that way for the rest of my life.