Hyperion Records

Cocteau was Satie’s muse in his ballet, Les aventures de Mercure (1924), and Picasso and Massine played their respective parts. Mercure was written for the famous ‘Soirées de Paris’ organized by Étienne de Beaumont, and first given on 15 June 1924 at the Théâtre de la Cigale. The score is subtitled ‘three dimensional poses in three images’, and the ballet presents a dazzling array of classical figures engaged in various ‘poses’, and revealing unexpected aspects of themselves. We are walking around sculptures again as we hear in quick succession ‘Dance of the Graces’, ‘Flight of Mercury’, and ‘Anger of Cerberus’, amongst others, depicted in brassy, coarse, and café-concertish tones, beneath which always lurks a hint of loving tenderness.

from notes by Simon Wright © 1989