In the 1970s, Reinbert de Leeuw stormed the popular charts with recordings of Erik Satie's early piano music. With his ultra-rare performances of pieces such as Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies just the right chord. The albums sold like hot cakes and were awarded gold and platinum records. Two decades later, he recorded them again and this season he is touring the country again. Tonight, 28 October, he plays at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, later in this season he visits a.o. Groningen, Nijmegen and Leiden.
Satie's music became best known in the 1960s thanks to the recordings of Italian-French pianist Aldo Ciccolini. Satie's contrary compositions and idiosyncratic attitude to life resonated closely with the anti-authoritarian mentality of the protest generation. Moreover, his uncomplicated notes and playful comments provided a welcome counterpoint to the deadly seriousness of avant-gardists such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Soon Dutchmen started promoting Satie's work too, such as the pianist Polo de Haas, the singer Henriëtte Klautz, the artist Chaim Levano and the biologist-writer Dick Hillenius. Reinbert de Leeuw also soon threw himself into the fray, stunning friend and foe alike by taking the indication "très lent" very literally: his performances sometimes last twice as long as those of other pianists.
De Leeuw's extremely slow interpretations attracted the attention of Koert Stuyf and Ellen Edinoff, who made a name for themselves with a kind of 'anti-dance' à la Merce Cunningham. In the early 1970s, Stuyf designed several choreographies to music by Satie, with Reinbert de Leeuw at the piano. During a concert in 1972, he was even hoisted, grand piano and all, to the ridge of Theatre Carré, where he was assisted by bicycle lights. A year later, he plays in Seesaw the Trois Sarabandes, while Edinoff moves agonisingly slowly from one side of a wobbly board to the other. The audience is breathless.
The Lion said in Reinbert de Leeuw, man or melody: 'Koert found a perfect combination with the music. He concentrated on something very small but with enormous depth and Ellen had such an insane talent, it brought about something magical.' The high-profile performances put Satie's popularity on the fast track. One reviewer wrote in The Parool: 'The way that Satie was played by Reinbert de Leeuw, I would want a record of it.'
The journalist is at his beck and call. Not long after his sigh, the Harlekijn label, just founded by cabaret artist Herman van Veen, is launching a three-part record series under the equally simple and effective title Satie, the Early Piano Works. The first album is released in October 1975 and includes Gnossiennes and Danses gothiques. Within weeks, thousands of copies are sold. The record is also played on pop station Hilversum 3 two months later during the Moluccan train hijacking near Wijster.
After this, Satie's music becomes almost inescapable. Reinbert's records are played in hairdressers, saunas, massage parlours and even supermarkets; they are also frequently used in television documentaries. In this way, Satie's notes are transformed into 'musique d'ameublement', music that does not impose itself but is, as it were, unconsciously perceived.
Incidentally, not everyone is impressed by De Leeuw's meditative playing. For instance, fellow pianist Ton Hartsuiker of "oracular interpretations" and is annoyed by the "Satie glorification". Journalist Jan Blokker also denounces the compelling nature of the Satie craze. 'Not as soon as Reinbert de Leeuw has put Satie on record or the world grabs its chance. 'Satie, mister, that's it. Records, books, articles, television, radio and you name it. What's nasty about that is the slavishness, the not thinking, the stupid following and especially the fast habituation'.
Hartsuiker and Blokker proved to be callers in the desert. The Reinbert-Satie combo still draws full houses in 2015.
On Wednesday, November 4, I dedicate Panorama the Lion XIII on the Concertzender entirely to Satie.
In 2013, I interviewed Reinbert de Leeuw about Satie for VPRO Radio 4. The conversation was filmed by Aad van Nieuwkerk:
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