Obscure, and often ridiculed during his lifetime, Erik Satie, was perhaps one of the most unusual protagonist of the early 20th century French avant-garde. His inimitable, bare and serenely objective music was largely neglected until the eclectic 1960s and ''70s when such pioneering figures as John Cage, who was enthralled by the composer''s desire to tear up the rule-book, to embrace the absurd and the surreal, and to blend low and high art, and Brian Eno, who proclaimed Satie to be the first ambient composer , fell under his spell. In this edition, Satie for Two Guitars is complimented by an intensely coloured, very French recording of the composer''s music for the controversial ballet Parade in a performance by the conductor Louis Fremaux with the Orchestre National de l''Opera de Monte Carlo. Parade was written by Jean Cocteau in 1916-17 for Sergei Diaghilev''s Ballets Russes with costumes and sets designed by painter Pablo Picasso and choreography by L onide Massine. The public were outraged by Satie''s score which included typewriters and a foghorn and a considerable scandal ensued culminating in a short prison sentence for the composer. Our programme is completed by Gaby and Robert Casadesus'' recording of the Trois morceaux en forme de poire (Three Pieces In The Shape Of A Pear), Satie''s eloquent riposte to a critic who had accused him of writing formless music.
