Best of Piano Music [Audio CD] Satie; Ciccolini and Tacchino - Very Good

Very Good - DELETE

Amazon.ca Aldo Ciccolini's late-1960s survey devoted to Erik Satie's piano music helped spawn new interest in the idiosyncratic French composer. The pianist rerecorded the cycle digitally, and it is from these remakes that the present reissue stems. While the performances are refreshingly pert, stylish, and perceptive, the rather glassy, treble-heavy engineering can't hold a candle to EMI's warmer analog sound for the earlier recordings. Be that as it may, this disc covers a spectrum of Satie's creative moods (to say nothing of his bizarre titles), from the pensive Gymnopdies, Gnossiennes, and Nocturnes to the upbeat irony inherent in the character pieces. Gabriel Tacchino joins Ciccolini for a balletic romp through La belle excentrique. Happily, this duo will have none of the fussy rubato with which a handful of world-class pianists distort Trois Morceaux en forme de poire. If warm, rounded piano sound is not an issue, then this disc will do just fine as your basic Satie starter kit. --Jed Distler

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