Live at the BBC Proms: French pianist Alexandre Tharaud and actor Alistair McGowan lead a cabaret of music and words celebrating Satie

Live from Cadogan Hall, London
Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Alistair McGowan, actor
Jean Delescluse, singer
Alexandre Tharaud, piano

French pianist Alexandre Tharaud leads a cabaret of music and words celebrating one of the most curious and innovative composers of the 20th century.

He is joined by actor and impressionist Alistair McGowan (author of both a radio play and a documentary inspired by the composer) for a lunchtime foray featuring extracts from Satie's witty Memoirs of an Amnesiac.

Along the way we discover more about the composer of the solo-piano Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies: a committed eccentric who embraced Surrealism, invented the term 'furniture music' (later to become 'ambient music'), frequented Montmartre's bohemian Le Chat Noir cabaret club, became seduced by an esoteric strain of mystical Catholicism and for a period ate only food that was white in colour. Show less