Search - Erik Satie, Pascal Rogé :: After the Rain...The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie

The Very Best Satie Available!

06/28/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the very best Satie disc available. Why? Well, the performances are superb, the recording very clear; but moreover, what Roge has done here is select all Satie's lovely and haunting adagio pieces from his entire oeuvre for solo piano. This is signifigant because apart from these pieces, the remainder of Satie's piano works consists of frantic, "humorous" pieces that are supposed to be "funny," but in reality are very poor art. Perhaps they were valuable as novelties during Satie's own day, as evocations of Modernism, Futurism, etc. Now they stink. But Roge has salvaged all the quite excellent slow and meditative pieces of unusual harmonies, and formed them into one fabulous disc.



The recording was made in one continous session: it seems Roge performed from memory. The sound to my ear is quite excellent: it sounds as if it were made in a large open-air studio with windows open to the cityscape: however, sounds from the street are not an issue here.



You know, the whole technique of recording a solo piano has a lot of theory to it: Glenn Gould, for one, experimented with several techniques: for example, close microphoning; ranked microphoning; distant microphoning, etc. It seems plain that here Roge was going for a completely natural sound--what one would hear being in the same room, present at the performance. I think Roge succeded, and the recording has a very intimate, live timbre. I really think this is the best Satie disc around."

The only Satie disc you'll ever need!

Peter Rasmussen | 01/28/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Roge is a master when it comes to performing the works of the impressionist composers. With Satie, he is both playful and gentle, offering the perfect amount of expression to the Trois Gymnopedies and the six Gnossienes. Satie's work pinnacled in solo piano pieces, and Pascal Roge does not disappoint. Put your CD player on repeat and set it on your headboard before you go to sleep at night!"

Sound quality is good

Peter Rasmussen | MN | 12/26/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Replying to review titled "Still Raining, I think"



The reviewer complains that the sound quality is bad because it is not digital DDD or ADD. I have the record, and my opinion is that the prior reviewer was hearing the sound of the room, not the sound of the analog recording equipment (if it is indeed analog and not digital). It sounds natural and beautiful. It does not sound like a dead quiet studio. Don't be discouraged by the prior review. Although I know about recording I don't know enough to comment on the quality of the performance or composition. I just wanted to note that the sound quality is fine."