A world-premiere recording of numerous uncovered works will feature violinist Nemanja Radulović alongside pianist Alexandre Tharaud
A century after the death of Erik Satie, 27 never-before heard works are being released to the public for the first time.
The new digital album, Satie: Discoveries, performed by pianist Alexandre Tharaud, will be available from 27 June 2025 on Erato, just days ahead of the centenary of Satie’s death on 1 July 1925.
Though most of the tracks feature pianist Tharaud performing solo, three also feature Serbian violinist Nemanja Radulović. Radulović’s violin takes on the role of the singer in a Mélodie and two cabaret songs from the operetta Pousse l’amour where the lyrics are now lost.
Cellist Gautier Capuçon also makes a cameo, albeit not on cello but piano; he performs with Tharaud on ‘Chinese Conjuror’ from the ballet Parade for piano four hands.
The album is the result of musicological research by Sato Matsui, a Japanese composer and violinist, and James Nye, a British musicologist and composer. The duo independently tracked down lost materials in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and a private archive in Boston, piecing together and reconstructing Satie’s sketches into fully performable scores. Some of these are to be published by Éditions de la Fabrique Musique.
The collection sheds new light on Satie and his works. Reconstructed from forgotten manuscripts and unfinished sketches, these pieces, ranging from playful cabaret songs to minimalist nocturnes, were originally written by Satie for performance in the bohemian cafés of Montmartre, where he worked as a pianist in the late nineteenth century.
Among the newly discovered works are pieces in the same free, minimalist style of Satie’s Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes. Other works draw on familiar dance styles, including several Parisian Valses, the café-concert song and operetta arias, while further pieces reveal Satie’s experimental side.
’Satie remains very much an enigmatic figure today, held in enormous regard at the same time as being largely misunderstood and almost unknown,’ said Tharaud.
’It is up to us to look beyond the Gnossiennes and the Gymnopédies, to try our sincere best to get closer to the music and to pay real attention.’
Satie: Discoveries is out on Erato on Friday 27 June 2025.
Read: Uncovered Imogen Holst Violin Concerto to receive first public performance
Read: Long-lost recording of Elgar’s Cello Concerto finally released after 27 years
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