Search - Satie, Armengaud, Plasson :: Parade / Relache / Gymnopedies 1 & 3

A curate's egg

G.D. | Norway | 12/01/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a difficult one; I guess debates will continue over the quality of Satie's music overall, but if it were based on his orchestral music alone I would actually have to count myself among the detractors, I think (that is not to say that his music didn't effect strong influences on other composers who indeed went on to compose masterpieces). But I am hesitant about drawing any clear conclusion - I found this disc to be mildly disappointing, but I find it hard to determine how much this is due to compositional shortcomings and how much to somewhat characterless performances.



All the music here is small-scale, with the Debussy orchestration of the Third Gymnopédie being the only one to stretch above the three-minute mark. Part of the problem when it comes to the listening experience is the very sectional and stop-start nature of the works. Thus listening to Parade and Relâche straight through becomes wearisome because of the fitfulness - even though the performances, playing with a certain lack of variety in terms of colors and textures manage to make the various numbers sound almost indistinguishable; variety of character is a must in this music, and is definitely not the strong side of this performance.The Toulouse Capitol Orchestra sounds like a very small band, and that works better in some pieces than in others. I have misgivings about the performances of the Gymnopedies and the Gnossienne as well, which sound slow and almost a little dreary, as does En habit de cheval, unfortunately. La belle exentrique sounds jolly and characterful, however, and I also liked the performance of the very insubstantial Le Piccadilly. The Cinq grimaces is also something of a highlight, but it is partially, I suspect, because Milhaud was such a superior orchestrator.



In any case the sound quality is close and a little weirdly balanced (full prominence to the extra-musical sound effects). A curate's egg of a disc, I think the verdict must be, leaving the listener none the wiser - perhaps the problem is that Plasson's view of these works seem to be that they are mere humorous, amusing trifles; so if there is a deeper side to the music (anxiety, scathing irony or bitterness), it is not something that is audible in these performances, at least. So in conclusion: I don't know - I didn't particularly warm to this disc and I don't think it's my fault, but then it is hard to determine whose fault it actually is, performers or composer (or even sound engineer)."