Letter(s) to Erik Satie Bertrand Chamayou

• John Cage (1912 - 1992):
• 1 Cage: All Sides of the Small Stone, for Erik Satie 03:37
• Erik Satie (1866 - 1925):
• 2 Satie: 6 Gnossiennes: No. 1, Lent 03:02
• John Cage:
• 3 Cage: Prelude for Meditation 01:20
• Erik Satie:
• 4 Satie: 3 Gymnopédies: No. 1, Lent et douloureux 02:57
• 5 Satie: 6 Gnossiennes: No. 2, Avec étonnement 02:02
• 6 Satie: 6 Gnossiennes: No. 3, Lent 02:45
• John Cage:
• 7 Cage: A Room 01:16
• 8 Cage: In a Landscape 08:00
• Erik Satie:
• 9 Satie: 3 Petites pièces montées: No. 1, De l'enfance de Pantagruel. Rêverie 01:14
• 10 Satie: 3 Véritables préludes flasques (pour un chien): No. 1, Sévère réprimande 00:39
• 11 Satie: 3 Véritables préludes flasques (pour un chien): No. 2, Seul à la maison 00:58
• 12 Satie: 3 Véritables préludes flasques (pour un chien): No. 3, On joue 00:49
• 13 Satie: 3 Gymnopédies: No. 2, Lent et triste 02:41
• 14 Satie: Sports et divertissements: No. 9, Le bain de mer 00:28
• 15 Satie: 6 Gnossiennes: No. 4, Lent 02:08
• 16 Satie: Sports et divertissements: No. 2, La balançoire 00:44
• John Cage:
• 17 Cage: Swinging 00:45
• Erik Satie:
• 18 Satie: Gymnopédies: No. 3, Lent et grave 02:30
• 19 Satie: 6 Gnossiennes: No. 5, Modéré 02:47
• 20 Satie: 5 Nocturnes: No. 2, Simplement 01:47
• 21 Satie: Sports et divertissements: No. 17, Le tango perpétuel 02:07
• John Cage:
• 22 Cage: Perpetual Tango 01:32
• Erik Satie:
• 23 Satie: 6 Gnossiennes: No. 6, Avec conviction et avec une tristesse rigoureuse 01:50
• 24 Satie: 3 Sarabandes: No. 3 in B-Flat Minor 04:26
• 25 Satie: 6 Pièces de la période 1906-1913: No. 6, Songe-creux 01:44
• 26 Satie: Le fils des étoiles: Prélude du premier acte. La vocation 03:37
• 27 Satie: Gnossienne No. 7 02:25
• James Tenney (1934 - 2006):
• 28 Tenney: Three Pages in the Shape of a Pear (In Celebration of Erik Satie) 00:32
• John Cage:
• 29 Cage: Dream 09:10
• Total Runtime 01:09:52

Info for Letter(s) to Erik Satie

“Erik Satie and John Cage are UFOs in the world of music, because they envisioned music through a completely different prism,” says pianist Bertrand Chamayou. “They are pioneers in the sense that, for many people, they changed the very idea of what music must be.”

With his album Letter(s) to Erik Satie Chamayou pays tribute to two idiosyncratic, innovative and influential composers, one born in Normandy in 1866, the other in Los Angeles in 1912. There is a strong connection between them: Cage considered Satie a source of inspiration.

Satie takes pride of place on the album with such pieces as the three Gymnopédies and the seven Gnossiennes, while Cage is represented by five pieces and a work attributed to him following its rediscovery amongst the papers of his disciple James Tenney – whose musical homage to Satie also features in the programme.

Chamayou recorded the album at the state-of-the-art Miraval Studios in Provence, which inspired him to take an experimental approach: “I thought we should do something a little different – and I thought of Erik Satie. This was an opportunity to get really intimate with the piano … Satie is really a special case, a strange musician unlike anyone else.”

Bertrand Chamayou, piano

Bertrand Chamayou
has established himself as a personality of the highest level on the international music scene, performing in venues like the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, New York’s Lincoln Center, the Herkulessaal, Musikfest Bremen, Wigmore Hall, New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Festival, Rotterdam Gergiev Festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and orchestras like the Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammer Philharmonie, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the Hessischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, the WDR Sinfonie Orchester, the SWR Sinfonie Orchester, the Orchestre National de France, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. Bertrand has worked with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Leonard Slatkin, Neville Marriner, Semyon Bychkov, Michel Plasson, Louis Langrée, Fabien Gabel, Joshua Weilerstein, Jérémie Rhorer, Stéphane Denève, Ludovic Morlot, Andris Nelson.

In the 2013/14 season, Bertrand will debut with the Deutsche Sinfonie Orchester at Berlin’s Philharmonie with Stéphane Denève the NDR Sinfonie Orchester in Hamburg with Semyon Bychkov and the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, ; he will return with the Hessischer Rundfunk Orchester in Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, will tour with Ludovic Morlot and his Orchestre de la Monnaie de Bruxelles, will return for an evening recital at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and be given a residency with the Orchetsre National de Bordeaux in their brand new auditorium including several orchestral performances, recitals and a tour. He will also tour in the United-States and play a recital at New York’s Lincoln Center.

Bertrand Chamayou released a very successful César Franck CD in March 2010, which was awarded several prizes including Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice. In 2008 his Mendelssohn CD had also been a wide success. He had released in 2006 a very successful Liszt live CD (Transcendental Etudes) for Sony Classical. In 2011, he celebrated Liszt’ 200th anniversary recording the complete Years of Pilgrimage for Naive which he also performed in several venues throughout the world. The album received raving reviews worldwide and got several prizes including Gramophone ‘s Choice. He played the same year with Pierre Boulez and the Orchestre de Paris at Salle Pleyel,. In February 2011, he won a Victoire de la Musique as “Soloist of the Year”.

At 20, Bertrand was a prize-winner at the international Long- Thibaud competition . Born in 1981, Bertrand was very soon remarked by pianist Jean-François Heisser who was later to become his professor at Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. Bertrand Chamayou completed his training then with Maria Curcio in London and was given precious advice by such great masters as Leon Fleisher, Dimitri Bashkirov and Murray Perahia.

Betrrand has been a regular chamber music player with partners including Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Quatuor Ebène, Antoine Tamestit, Baiba Skride, Sol Gabetta, Nicolas Baldeyrou. He now regularly performs throughout the world with Sol Gabetta.

Booklet for Letter(s) to Erik Satie