840: Satie, Poulenc, Andriessen, Francaix

The number 840 appears above the score of Satie's Vexations. It indicates the amount of repeats of this piece with a length of only one minute and a half. Now it suddenly takes not less than 16 hours to perform it. This is a good example of the innovative and sometimes absurd genius of Erik Satie. Some early reviewers called him a charlatan, but according to Stravinsky Erik Satie was one of the great composers of his days besides Bizet and Chabrier. Debussy arranged two Gymnopedies for orchestra successfully, whilst Roussel praised his impeccable counterpoint and John Cage pronounced Satie the 'indispensable' and 'art's most serious servant'. He was a man who raised opinions. On this CD all tracks are somehow related to the music by Erik Satie; five of them are arrangements of his piano works which are combined with pieces that carry the idea's of Satie. The influence of Satie on French music is not to be underestimated and he can be seen as a navigator towards new musical developments. Erik Satie liked to be ironical, absurd and funny and for his whole life he had a deeply rooted dislike of conventions in all it's forms. It made him a forerunner in the field of many musical innovations, the most typical and daring one being his harmonic language with it's remarkable resolutions and parallel chords. Also pop musicians feel connected to this new invented approach to harmony. The repertoire of this album reaches from 1884 with the very first composition of Satie, until 2019 with Acruarela nr. 7 of Camilo Giraldo dedicated to Enno Voorhorst. In 1987 Enno Voorhorst won first prize at the international guitar competition in Hof (Germany) followed by a number of prizes including the Dutch guitar prize in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 1992 and the first prize at the Seto-Ohashi competition in Japan in that same year. He has regularly played in the most prestigious concert halls in Holland and gives concerts and master classes throughout Europe, Asia and America. Enno Voorhorst teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and, in addition to solo concerts, performs regularly with oboist Pauline Oostenrijk and with viola player Mikhail Zemtsov in the duo Macondo. His earlier COBRA album Concerto Metis with The String Soloists, released in 2018, received wonderful reviews both in the Nether- lands and abroad. Classical Guitar Magazine wrote: 'This is a superb recording featuring playing of the highest order. '