🇫🇷Erik Satie ： Aprecus desagreables – Pastorale

“Pastorale,” from Satie’s piano-duet collection Aprecus desagreables, is a concise and unusual piece that views the rustic calm suggested by its pastoral title from a certain distance. Clear rhythms and unadorned melodic writing take on distinctive character through the exchange of registers and timbres between the two performers. Listening closely to the placement of each note and to the spaces between them reveals touches of humor and irony beneath the matter-of-fact progression. In performance, the players should listen carefully to each other’s breathing, avoid making the pulse overly rigid, and keep the overlapping sounds clear and transparent.