4 stars: Surprise! No Gymnopédies. Strongly recommended for those who want a deeper dive into Satie

SATIE Petite ouverture à danser. Musiques intimes et secrètes: Facheux exemple; Froide songerie; Nostalgie. Six pieces de la période: Effronterie; Profondeur; Prélude canin; Songe-creux; Poésie; Désespoir agréable. Airs à faire fuir I-III. Les trois Valses distinguées de précieux dégoutée: Son binocle. Avant-Dernières Pensées: Idylle (à Debussy); Aubade (à Paul Dukas); Méditation (à Albert Roussel). Nocturnes I-III. Deux réveries nocturnes. Prélude de la porte héroique du ciel. Caresse. Préludes I-III • Christina Bjørkøe (pn) • OUR 8.226929 (59:45)

Erik Satie passed away exactly a century ago this year on July 1. I was unaware of this until I read it in the introductory notes to this release, and I don't think the record companies have done a very good job of observing it. Perhaps that's because Satie is perceived as being a “one trick pony.” Once you get past the Gymnopédies (especially No. 3) and the Gnossiennes, and perhaps the ballet Parade, there is the perception that you've skimmed the cream off. This CD is titled Satie Surprises and makes a case for there being more to this composer, and specifically to his piano music, than initially meets the ear.
Or it doesn't make that case, depending on your tastes, I suppose. I like Satie's piano music, but I would have a difficult time arguing that it is notable for its contrasts or for an endless stream of innovation. Most of it is quiet, slowish and relatively open-textured. Many amateur pianists, myself included, have little difficulty playing its notes; playing the music inside of those notes is more difficult. I don't think the average music-lover is missing out on a heck of a lot by not going further than the aforementioned works, but on the other hand, there really are at least a few surprises here. One is that Satie was not averse to including mild dissonances in his music, although they are used more for color than to fulfill any particular harmonic purpose. One can hear this, for example, in the first of the three preludes that close this program. (Sometimes it is good to end with a beginning.) One might guess that these are later works, but in fact they are some of the earliest music here, composed between 1888 and 1892, when Satie was still in his twenties. In general, this program, as pianist Christina Bjørkøe has assembled it, moves from simplicity to greater complexity, which for Satie is not necessarily a chronological journey.
Another thing worth mentioning is that the Airs à faire fuir sound like Grieg's Lyric Pieces (1897) stripped down and with a few tasty wrong notes thrown in. Did Satie know Grieg's music?
The lengthy booklet note is an entertaining read about Satie's life, with little information about the music played on this program, however. His personality was modest, but the booklet note writer quotes from a hilariously vitriolic postcard that Satie wrote to a music critic named Poueigh (“I'm here in Fontainebleu, from where I shit on you with all my might,” and it gets worse) who later sued Satie for defamation of character. Poor Satie just could not catch a break.
Award-winning pianist Christina Bjørkøe has recorded several discs reviewed in Fanfare, including releases devoted to Carl Nielsen and Fini Henriques. She is a Danish pianist who teaches at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, and she studied at Juilliard with Seymour Lipkin. There are many bad ways to play Satie's music (see my comment above) and Bjørkøe falls prey to none of them. She is neither too knowing, too cute, too chill, nor too romantic. There is the idea that Satie's most famous music is just perfect for long soaks in the bathtub and other sensual (or sensuous) activities, but the best way to hear, and play, his music is to make your mind blank and to follow the score, even when its suggestions seem nonsensical. In other words, Christina Bjørkøe's Satie does not make me cringe, and it encourages me not to take the music for granted or to hear it through a “New Age” lens. (I know that is a mixed metaphor, but please bear with me.) In other words, her playing demonstrates real integrity and quiet good taste, not trendy quietism.
Her piano is a Steinway D and it was recorded last January in Odense's National Academy of Music. Raymond Tuttle