A groundbreaking anthology of piano music directly linked to the Dada avant-garde art movement in Paris between 1920 and 1923, Soirée Du Coeur A Barbe: Festival Dada Paris is based on the piano repertoire performed at two landmark Dada events in Paris, namely the Festival Dada on 26 May 1920, and the infamous Soirée Du Coeur A Barbe on 6 July 1923, an event disrupted by violent confrontation between Tristan Tzara's Dada faction and Surrealists lead by Andre Breton.
Music from the 1920 event includes two pieces by Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes as well as The American Nurse by Francis Picabia, the latter described as 'three notes repeated to infinity'. Pieces performed at the riotous 1923 soirée include two fox-trots by Georges Auric and Darius Milhaud (both members of the celebrated group Les Six), Trois Morceaux En Forme De Poire by Erik Satie (performed in person by the composer on the night), and Three Easy Pieces by Igor Stravinsky.
The CD also includes other pieces such as Satie's bizarre playlet Le Piège De Méduse (premiered in Paris in May 1921), Drie Composities Voor Klavier by the Belgian-born Dada/Surrealist E.L.T. Mesens, and a piano rendering of Marcel Duchamp's short vocal Musical Erratum of 1913. The CD closes with an historic archive Stravinsky recording from 1925 by Marcelle Meyer, the pianist who performed at both Dada events in 1920 and 1923.
Always described in detail in texts on the history of Dada and Surrealism, the music performed at these events is rarely heard, and remarkably this CD marks the first ever recordings of these compositions by Ribemont-Dessaignes, Picabia and Mesens. All were researched and performed for the project by virtuoso Dutch pianist Peter Beijersbergen van Henegouwen. The booklet includes detailed liner notes by James Hayward, as well as archive images.