Satie: Discoveries

Compiled to mark the centenary of the French composer Erik Satie’s death in 1925, this digital album anthologises 29 short pieces which had not been published before. The majority are under a minute long, and the pianist Alexandre Tharaud clearly relishes the dashing unpredictability of the angular “Recrudescence” from the mini-cycle Soupirs fanés (Faded Sighs). He also catches to a tee the swirling gaiety of Parisian cabaret life in “Cancan grand-mondain”, and the clash of antique dance with modern tonalities in “Bourrée”. The violinist Nemanja Radulović joins Tharaud for a clutch of pieces, among them the wistful “Mélodie”. But it’s the gnomic four-movement sequence Esquisses bitonales (Bitonal Sketches), with its enigmatically side-slipping harmonies, which will perhaps tickle Satie devotees the most. Half-serious, half tongue-in-cheek, it concisely summarises why Satie remains such a musically fascinating figure, substantially more than the quirky eccentric of legend.