France Before and After Erik Satie

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France Before and After Erik Satie

New England Conservatory: Jordan Hall (Map)

Boston, Massachusetts

Wednesday, 15 February 2017 - 7:30 PM

Presenter: New England Conservatory

Artists: Jessica Chin (Piano); Elias Dagher (Piano); YeIn Do (Piano); Hongge Du (Piano); Jungwook Go (Piano); Maryann Han (Piano); Yishan Hong (Piano); David Horton (Piano); Siqian Li (Piano); Yeontaek Oh (Piano); Xin Hua You (Piano); Jingxuan Zhang (Piano); Weiyu Zhu (Piano)

In the Form of a Pear:
Two Concerts Considering Satie

"Satie's works are as simple, as straightforward, as devastating as the remarks of a child."
—Virgil Thomson

Composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) qualifies in all respects for the overused epithet "unique." He wrote his music in isolation from historical precedent or conventional practices, and actively defied reality with his work titles and occasionally the works themselves.

Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear is the title Satie assigned to a work that actually consists of seven parts, not three—nor even a "pair." Did someone eat the other four pieces, or are we just meant to be baffled? Vexations is rarely performed because it is an endurance test consisting of 840 repetitions of a single musical line. Nonetheless, teams of pianists sometimes do take on the challenge.

Roughly half of Satie's output was for piano, so it's not surprising that NEC's piano department takes the lead in celebrating his music and its influence.

In two Jordan Hall concerts, January 24 and February 15, NEC piano students will perform music of Satie alongside that of other French composers, and American composers influenced by Satie.

Tonight's concert visits the sounds of earlier French composers who would have been an inevitable part of Satie's upbringing, including Chabrier and Rameau. We'll also hear Satie's contemporaries, including Debussy and Ravel, and more recent French composers whose work owes a debt to Satie's ideas.

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