Search - Erik Satie, Peter Lawson, Angela Brownridge :: Satie: Piano Music

MUSIC WITHOUT SAUERKRAUT

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 05/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I feel that it's worth calling attention to this disc for the sake of the part of it (roughly two-thirds) that I actually know. The selection that Peter Lawson performs is still available here and there to determined collectors on a disc of its own, but a reissue is more than welcome, particularly with this set filled out to reasonable length for a cd.



Peter Lawson is now 55. He originally recorded these pieces in London's Wigmore Hall in 1979, the recording engineer being the formidable Mr Bear. For reasons of health as well as personal temperament Peter has not elected to follow the international virtuoso circuit, which he would have graced in a major way had he so chosen. He is an enthusiastic proponent of certain modern composers, many of whom make greater calls than does Satie on the virtuoso technique that he possesses in abundance, but if you like Satie I can only suppose that you will enjoy this recital greatly. Satie was a bit of a sad figure, hopelessly inept at any kind of interpersonal relations, and comporting himself in a ridiculous way when he could not hide from human contact entirely. This side of him shows through in a number of the titles he gives to the pieces here that are simply buffoonery. Others of these titles, it seems to me, can be taken quite seriously - the trois gymnopedies are slow and grave in expression, not unlike Debussy's Danseuses de Delphes in some ways. With others again I simply don't know. `Medusa' in Greek just means `princess', for instance. It doesn't have to refer to the sorceress who turned beholders to stone, but I don't suppose Satie knew that. That is who he is likely referring to, but what possible relationship the name has to the music I have no idea - probably indeed none.



Give or take the titles of the pieces, there is no buffoonery in the music itself. Some of it has a light and ironic feel (not uncommon in French music of any era), but it does not aim to be `witty' or `amusing' music in the later manner of Poulenc or Francaix, and for that relief much thanks say I. These pieces are polished and thoroughly artistic miniatures that grace the art of music and do not diminish it. The harmonic idiom is basically tonal, though with some suggestions of Debussy at times. What it is above all is unmistakably French music. The composer remarked to Debussy that they needed to have their own music `without Sauerkraut'. What Peter Lawson conveys with particular beauty and sensitivity is its delicate Frenchness, less robust and much more fragile than the music of Faure, Debussy or Ravel.



It would of course be a great weight on my conscience if the other contributions to the disc were seriously unsatisfactory, or if the recorded quality had plummeted for some strange reason. These possibilities seem to me remote to vanishing, and I remain confident that I'm showing more public-spiritedness than if I held my tongue about the part of this record that I am familiar with. Peter Lawson's work is not entirely unknown to the musical public, and in particular there is a notable disc from him of modern American piano sonatas as well as some more out-of-the-way material. Admirers of Satie, and any who are simply curious about him, can surely be recommended this disc with absolute confidence."