The Unsent Letters of Erik Satie

Alistair McGowan travels to Paris on the trail of his musical hero, the visionary Erik Satie - now most well-known as the composer of the Gymnopedies.

Satie was famously eccentric - he replaced traditional musical directions like 'ralentando' and 'fortissimo' with instructions to the musician such as, 'While watching oneself approach' and 'like a nightingale with a toothache'.

And in order to save time deciding what to wear every day, he bought seven, identical, yellow, corduroy suits - one for every day of the week.

Satie's radical new approach to music was initially dismissed by the musical establishment, but he was to prove a highly influential force in the new French music of Debussy, Ravel and anticipated 20th century minimalism.

As Alistair talks to Satie biographers and musicians, he uncovers the story of Satie's one and only love affair, with the artist Suzanne Valadon.

Their affair lasted only six months, but years later, after Satie's death, bundles of unsent letters to Suzanne were discovered in Satie's apartment.

Featuring interviews with:

* Robert Orledge
* Ornella Volta
* Jean-Pierre Armengaud

Translations of Ornella Volta's interviews were voiced by Philippa Stanton

Producer: Emma Harding

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2013.

*** FURTHER READING:

* Satie Seen Through His Letters, edited by Ornella Volta, translated by Michael Bullock. Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd; New edition (May 1994)

* Satie the Composer by Robert Orledge. Cambridge University Press (4 Dec 2008)