Summary
Pascal Rogé is one of the world's greatest interpreters of French piano music.
From the seat of a concert hall piano, he leads us through a personal and musical journey of Erik Satie's Gymnopédies.
You may not immediately know the title but in hearing just the first few notes, you are most likely to know the music.
It's a collection of short, atmospheric pieces of which Gymnopédie No.1 is perhaps the most popular.
Music historian and author Mark Prendergast has studied Satie's work and reveals the complex character of the man who revolutionised the 19th century classical music of Europe.
Melbourne based artist Colin Duncan reflects on the music's 'physical form which takes you into space and time' and for him inspired a body of work created in braille.
Murder Mystery writer Cathy Ace remembers how this meditative music could shut out the noise of the city as she sped around London in her old brown mini.
Mathematician and author Ian Stewart explores the mathematics of this special piece and how music can touch our soul.
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.
Producer: Nicola Humphries
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.1 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.2 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team is such a diverse range of skills and strengths, |
| 0:23.0 | we have trained journalists, people who love digging through archives, |
| 0:26.6 | we've got drama and even comedy experts. |
| 0:28.9 | We really can do those stories justice. |
| 0:31.5 | So if you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds |
| 0:34.2 | where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK. |
| 0:49.4 | With two calls, he creates first the atmosphere And then comes the melody on the same harmony. |
| 1:00.9 | It has this sort of feel that the notes are kind of like falling through the air, like, almost like snowflakes. |
| 1:13.7 | And again, like your fingertips are sort of falling on the keyboard. |
| 1:20.3 | And then he goes somewhere else. |
| 1:24.4 | It's like watching water ripple along in a river and wash back. |
| 1:30.3 | It's alive. |
| 1:39.3 | Music, of course, is written, but we are there to make it alive. |
| 1:49.0 | And the way we play it, every time it's different. |
| 2:03.6 | I'm Pascal Rogé, I'm a concert pianist. I play a lot of French music. |
| 2:07.6 | I believe that this is the music closest to my heart and this is my mother tongue. the time. |
| 2:28.6 | The first gymnopedy by Eric Satti was published in 1888. |
| 2:33.5 | It was the first of three gymynopedies that he wrote, |
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