Pianist Steffen Schleiermacher zeros in on the stark, austere character of Erik Satie’s choral-like, chord based pieces such as the Quatre Ogives, Première Pensée Rose Croix, Sonneries de la Rose Croix, Prière, Quatre Préludes, and the Danses Gothiques, playing them in a uniformly slow, solemn, philosophical, and frankly Teutonic manner. To be sure, Schleiermacher commands the technical and intellectual wherewithal to play Satie however he sees fit. Such an interpretive approach, however, tends to blur distinctions between the individual works and drags the music’s irony and bite down into the swamp. For instance, Schleiermacher barely distinguishes the composer’s “detaché” and “lié” markings in the Sonneries de la Rose Croix triumvirate, whereas Aldo Ciccolini honors these indications to a fault, imbuing the music with more dynamic and textural contrast. But if you desire slow-motion Satie (pedestal not included), by all means purchase this disc.
