Alessandra Celletti
A review of her album 'Esoterik Satie'
Review
Snapshot:
To review a collection of classical music it sometimes feels as if you need to
be a very experienced connoisseur, like being a wine-taster. But all the pomp
that's grown up with classical music aside, and as we're talking about Satie, a
rebel in musical terms, let's tell it like it is: this is a perfect measured
collection of written sound that's delivered through the fingers of a rare
artist who has within her that special ingredient needed to be able to release
Satie's compositional ideas and make them illuminate the listener's ears. An
esoterik talent.
The Cluas Verdict: 9 out of 10.
Full Review:
This is a wonderful gem, quite happened upon by chance, all thanks to that
marvellous virtual labyrinth of music, myspace. Somehow knowing I'm a fan of
Satie I received a friend request from Alessandra and on hearing the few
delicious snippets featured on her page I immediately ordered a copy of this
album, very cleverly entitled Esoterik Satie, and I've listened to nearly
nothing else since.
It comprises a good number of the famous and the less notorious compositions of
the sensational nineteenth century composer. Satie himself was a harbinger of
musical progression, he proclaimed he was a 'phonometrician' (meaning "someone
who measures and writes down sounds"), as opposed to a musician; he was the
audible accompaniment to the modern movements in art and literature and those
movements' phonic equivalent, and the minimalism and mood-enhancing melody he
incorporated into his works has given him the crown of being the forefather of
modern ambient music.
The way in which Celletti interprets and represents the tunes on her sole piano
is astonishing; perfectly paced with a beautiful use of dynamics and ordered all
together so well it delivers a sensation of euphoria as 'Petite Ouverture -
Danser' comes to an end.
This is the perfect album to befit a night of candlelight and wine-drinking with
a partner, the soft timbre of the piano (Satie sometimes used what's come to be
known as 'prepared piano' in his pieces, a system whereby he lay paper strips on
piano strings to create a mechanical sound; John Cage later took this up and
it's notably reproduced in the piano tracks on Aphex Twin's Drukqs) is so
indelibly romantic, haunting and idyllic that it lets you escape into another
world not as busy as ours, not as terrifying, but where everything seems
tranquil and holy; it's hallowing music.
The subtle transitions from one variation to another, first noted in the small
changes between 'Pieces Froides, Danses de Travers no. 1' and 'Pieces Froides,
Danses de Travers no. 2' make for a spine-tingling feeling that grabs a hold of
your soul and slowly warms and caresses it, and there's always that odd blue
note in there somewhere that surprises and tickles you with a little fear, with
a little wink. The songs' structures invoke a huge appreciation of Satie's
unequivocal genius.
The body of the six Gnossiennes that follow are greatly evocative; they're a
sumptuous collection of variations that encounter such transformations yet
essentially remain as one esoteric whole, eminently powerful when that little
string of notes jumps out almost unexpectedly in the first and terrifically
relaxing and soothing in the bass intonation that runs solemnly through
throughout. There's the 'Pieces Froides, Airs a Faire' suite, the third of which
seems to take Tchaikovsky's 'Dance of the Reeds' from The Nutcracker and grinds
into an experimental shape the likes of which had not until that time been
imagined. And the 'Gymnopédies', the sweet 'Gymnopédies', everybody knows them,
the first at least, and Alessandra Celletti here expounds them with a supple
energy, better than Nicholas York's rendering but reminiscent of his beautiful
articulation of keys displayed in his playing of Claude Debussy works. From
bringing in the 'Sports et Divertissements' in the middle to the sheer audacity
'Sarabande' and 'Ogive' at the end this incredibly well put together album is a
triumph start to finish.
