Composer: Erik Satie
Performer: Bruce Liu
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Release: 2024
Size: 497 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Gnossiennes
CD 01
01. No. 1, Lent
02. No. 2, Avec étonnement
03. No. 3, Lent
04. No. 4, Lent
05. No. 5, Modéré
06. No. 6, Avec conviction et avec une tristesse rigoureuse
CD 02
01. No. 1, Lent (Upright Version)
02. No. 2, Avec étonnement (Upright Version)
03. No. 3, Lent (Upright Version)
04. No. 4, Lent (Upright Version)
05. No. 5, Modéré (Upright Version)
06. No. 6, Avec conviction et avec une tristesse rigoureuse (Upright Version)
This Deutsche Grammophon release seems to have been a side project that grabbed the spotlight, making classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2024. Pianist Bruce Liu added recordings of Satie’s Gnossiennes on an upright piano to completed recordings on a conventional grand. This is not simply an exercise in reception history; Satie is known to have worked on an upright piano, and four of them were found among his effects after his death (two were upside down and placed atop the other two). The pieces are mysterious and experimental to begin with, and the charismatic Liu emphasizes this quality, giving the constantly shifting, sometimes unmeasured music a kind of stream-of-consciousness quality. Add to this the peculiar sound of the upright piano, which has a noisy sound like that of an instrument one might hear in a bar or even in Satie’s home. All this gives the upright a highly unusual, intimate quality that fits both with these particular pieces and with Liu’s interpretations of them. It is a wholly novel idea that may have applications beyond Satie (surely other composers of the day did their work on upright pianos), but here, it is irresistibly, well, gnostic.