Product Description
La Belle Excentrique is a suite for small orchestra composed by Erik Satie in July to October 1920. Subtitled a "serious fantasy," the work perfectly embodies the composers ironical humor and conscious sense of Parisian chic. It was commissioned by the dancer and cabaret singer Élisabeth Toulemon (Mme Elise Jouhandeau), known as Caryathis, an eccentric performer who shared Saties taste for the burlesque and for finding new approaches to modern dance. The suite consists of four movements with deliberately extravagant titles: Marche Franco-Lunaire, Valse du Mystérieux baiser dans lœil', Cancan Grand-Mondain and a Grande ritournelle, which was originally meant to cover Caryathis's costume changes. But, in the end, Satie chose only one costume, designed by Jean Cocteau, so this movement can be played wherever the pianist desires - probably between the dances rather than before or after them.. In choosing only one costume, Satie boldly rejected designs by Jean Hugo, Marie Laurencin, Kees van Dongen and the celebrated Paul Poiret! Its orchestral premiere took place at the Théâtre du Colisée in the Avenue des Champs-Elysées on 14 June 1921 when the orchestra was conducted by Vladimir Golschmann.
In La Belle Excentrique, Satie makes a trip through Parisian popular entertainment after 1900 in his own inimitable style. The version for piano four hands was published in 1921, but the version for piano solo (made separately) is published complete here for the first time by Les Editions Musik Fabrik, This is because the solo Cancan Grand-Mondain was only rediscovered in 2019 and because the Grande Ritournelle has been specially transcribed in 2024 by Robert Orledge, with the aid of the Légende Californienne (1905) from which it originated. As such, La Belle Excenrique for solo piano awaits its first complete recording. It offers a fresh perspective on a whimsical and refined work that Satie attached considerable importance to.
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