Search - Sauguet, Eidi :: Henri Sauguet: Complete Piano Works

SOOTHING SAUGUET

Melvyn M. Sobel | Freeport (Long Island), New York | 01/28/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sometimes, ignorance is not bliss.



When I bought this CD, used, on the Swiss EMS label at least seven years ago, maybe more, and it had probably been deleted from circulation way before this, not that anyone was looking, I, regretfully, had never heard of Henri Sauguet (1901-1989).



So, the reappearance of the composer's complete piano works on Koch's Discover International budget series is most definitely a cause to rejoice. For me, since I have adored each and every one of these pieces from the moment I first listened, and the CD has been one of my favorites since, it gives a sort of closure. So many people can now, once again, hear this music.



It's difficult not to feel this way, actually, about Sauguet. His piano compositions have all the charm, wit, beauty and nostalgia one could want or wish for--- with quite an apparent lack of neurosis, very much in vogue with too many of his contemporaries. This is music one turns to when the day is simply too long, its realities too harsh; it is music that embraces with a pleasant familiarity.



Pianist Billy Eidi, long associated with the composer, and champion of these delightfully pleasing, heartwarming vignettes, could not be more expressive or exuberant, nor his playing more obviously devoted.



[Running time: 58:25]"