Pascal Rogé is one of the most outstanding figures in the French piano world today. Born in Paris, he graduated from the Paris Conservatory, where he studied under Julius Cachen and Nadia Borno, and won the Georges Enessco Piano Competition and the Marguerite Long Piano Competition. At the young age of 17, he became the exclusive recording engineer for Decca Records. His interpretations of Poulenc, Satie, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, and especially Ravel, are widely praised both domestically and internationally for their elegance, subtlety, and perfection.
Rogé has collaborated with numerous world-renowned orchestras, performing in almost every major concert hall in the world. Among his contemporaries are Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Maris Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Édouard Dewaart, Alan Gilbert, David Zinman, Marek Janowski, Sir Andrew Davis, and Raymond Leppard, all of whom are considered among the most distinguished conductors in history. As one of the world's leading recording artists, Pascal Rogé has received numerous awards, including two Gramophone Awards, a Recording Grand Prix, and an Edison Award for his interpretations of Ravel and Saint-Saëns' concertos, as well as his recordings of complete piano works by Ravel, Poulenc, and Satie.
Several years ago, Rogé launched an ambitious new recording project with Onyx Records called "Rogé Wind." With the assistance of Bertrand de Billy, he recently recorded two albums: one of Ravel's Piano Concerto, one of Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F major, and one of Rhapsody in Blue.
More recently, Pascal has been working with his close friend and musical partner, Amy Rogé, on the study and performance of two-piano repertoire. Together, they have toured renowned music festivals and concert halls around the world, recording several albums focusing on French two-piano works. In 2011, they made their debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, performing a new concerto for two pianos by composer Matthew Sinderson, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
As president of the Geneva Piano Competition, Pascal Rogé has also dedicated himself to music education in recent years, regularly holding masterclasses in France, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
These Three Gnossiennes were composed around 1890 and first published in 1893. A revision prior to publication in 1893 is not unlikely; the 2nd Gnossienne may even have been composed in that year (it has "April 1893" as date on the manuscript). The piano solo versions of the first three Gnossiennes are without time signatures or bar lines, which is known as free time.
These Gnossiennes were first published in Le Figaro musical No. 24 of September 1893 (Gnossiennes Nos. 1 and 3, the last one of these then still "No. 2") and in Le Cœur No. 6–7 of September–October 1893 (Gnossienne No. 2 printed as facsimile, then numbered "No. 6").
The first grouped publication, numbered as known henceforth, followed in 1913. By this time Satie had indicated 1890 as composition date for all three. The first Gnossienne was dedicated to Alexis Roland-Manuel in the 1913 reprint. The 1893 facsimile print of the 2nd Gnossienne contained a dedication to Antoine de La Rochefoucauld, not repeated in the 1913 print. This de La Rochefoucauld had been a co-founder of Joséphin Péladan's Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique et Esthetique du Temple et du Graal in 1891. By the second publication of the first set of three Gnossiennes, Satie had broken already for a long time with all Rosicrucian type of endeavours.
Also with respect to the tempo these Gnossiennes follow the Gymnopédies line: slow tempos, respectively Lent (French for Lento/slow), avec étonnement ("with astonishment"), and again Lent.
A sketch containing only two incomplete bars, dated around 1890, shows Satie beginning to orchestrate the 3rd Gnossienne.
The first and third Gnossiennes share a similar chordal structures, rhythm and share reference to each other's thematic material.
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