Hyperion Records

In the year of 1915 Satie wrote those little masterpieces Sports et divertissements. Stravinsky had originally been asked to illustrate with music an album of sketches portraying various sports and recreations. He asked too large a fee and Satie was offered the commission. Although the sum was lower than Stravinsky’s, the unpredictable Satie thought it too high and felt insulted. In the end he was persuaded to accept the ignoble idea of making money from his art and produced twenty-one cameos picturing golf, hunting, fishing, swimming, yachting and so on. He worked very hard at them, paring down his initial ideas, simplifying continually, reducing the material to as small a compass as possible, and cutting out inessentials to achieve the bare, lithe style that was his ideal. He turned smallness into an asset and capitalized on the virtues of brevity. The Sports et divertissements celebrate the triumphant culmination of his art.

from notes by James Harding © 1989