Composer: DANE RUDHYAR; ERIK SATIE

Information:
Paris X brings together music by the X-patriate Dane Rudhyar and the X-centric Erik Satie, two Parisians whose personal acquaintance was slight but whose music and artistic vision offer a fascinating tapestry of similarity and difference.
The first half of this disc presents two distinct views of Rudhyar, that of the young Parisian Daniel Chenneviere - with works reminding one of late Liszt - and of the later American Dane Rudhyar. This later period is reflected in the Tetragrams - works with a close kinship to Scriabin, Ives and Varese.
Satie's 1892 Uspud: a Christian Ballet in 3 Acts confounds one with its musical vocabulary (Gregorian-chant-like melodies, powerful declamatory passages, slinky cafe harmonies, inexplicable pauses, exasperating repetitions, perpetually slow tempi), with the circumstances of its composition (inspired by Flaubert's Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, proposed as a ballet to the Paris Opera, ignored by the Director until challenged by Satie to a pistol duel (!), possibly thrown together overnight, subsequently left unproduced), and its seemingly unpresentability in its published form as a piano solo. This recording sidesteps the last problem by incorporating the narrated scenario of Satie's friend J.P. Contamine de Latour, which appears interspersed with the music in the published score.
Is this a serious metaphysical work....or could it be the quintessential and perhaps only example of "neo-medieval, proto-minimalist Dadaism?
Richard Cameron-Wolfe is definitely the right man for the job. He specializes in music of the early 20th century and has championed Rudhyar's music as well as performed much Satie, including the 24-hour Vexations. Kathryn Philip is an actress in New York City.