SACDs - Satie

Pianist and composer and improviser Michael Gees is best known for his collaborations with the internationally-renowned tenor Christoph Prégardien. On this new Hybrid SACD, he brings his extraordinary skill as an improviser to the piano music of the maverick early 20th-century French composer Erik Satie.

Gees believes that music should never stay still, and that improvisation should not only be relevant to new music, but may also be used to re-interpret music from the past: “I encourage my listeners to think of “historical performances”: Once upon a time, it used to be expected and common practice that pianists would not just execute pieces but add variations extempore, that is, bring forth closely-tied improvisation.”

Pianist Michael Gees was born in Bielefeld in 1953. In 1961 he won the first prize at the Hamburg Steinway Composition and at the Student Competition hosted by the Salzburg Mozarteum, where he subsequently studied. He made his concert debut in his native Bielefeld in 1963. He studied with Seydlhofer and David at the Vienna Musikhochschule before pursuing his training in Detmold and Hannover. There, in addition to pursuing his pianistic career, he also devoted himself to jazz and composition. In 1986 Michael Gees appeared as composer, soloist and accompanist at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

Gees has been working with Christoph Prégardien for several years now and has recorded several key works from the lieder repertoire with the great tenor. These include the acclaimed album ‘Between Life and Death’, released by Challenge Classics in late 2009 (CC72324).

Since he first began an illustrious career back in the 1970s, the French pianist Pacal Rogé has produced a string of critically acclaimed recordings, and has become known as one of the foremost interpreters of the music of his homeland. On this new hybrid SACD entitled “Crystal Dream”, he combines piano works by two composers who are in many ways worlds apart but whose music share an ethereal quality, late 19th century French composer Erik Satie and the contemporary Japanese composer Takashi Yoshimatsu.

Pascal Rogé was born in Paris in 1951. By the age of 17 was performing at the major concert halls around the world, and has gone on to be one of the major recording artists of the piano repertoire. He is particularly renowned for his interpretations of Chopin and the music of French composers.

Although the composer’s Erik Satie and Takashi Yoshimatsu are from complete different periods and musical cutures, they are both known for defying the musical trend of their own time. Superficially it may appear that their music has very little in common, but despite the fact that Satie was writing in France at the turn of the twentieth century, and the Yoshimatsu is very much a contemporary composer, their music is notable for the way it inspires the imagination.

The music selected by Tina Chen and Hannibal for this recital is the soundtrack for a day dream, or the twilight accompaniment for a romantic dinner. The emphasis is on Melody – beautiful, finely arched musical lines that reach beyond the pressures of everyday life and transport you, to a quiet realm of song, warmly and realistically recorded in SACD, Super Audio Sound!

This recording also marks the CD debut of the charismatic, young concert violinist , Chen Yi, was the Gold Medal winner at the China International Violin competition (2008). As part of the Mendelssohn Bicentennial Celebrations, Ms. Chen was invited to perform the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in Beijing’s new National Center for the Performing Arts. In 2010 she will perform the Nielsen Violin Concerto as part of the Danish Gala Concert in EXPO in Shanghai. This major event marks artistic dialogue between Denmark and China.