Julius Katchen (piano)
Concert Tours 1951-1965
rec. 1951-65
Meloclassic MC1082 [2 CDs: 150]

Julius Katchen is still well known as a Brahms player thanks to the series of recordings he made for Decca in the early 1960s and less happily for his death aged just 42 from cancer in 1969. To me he will always be the pianist who introduced me to Dohnányi’s Variations on a nursery song a little under half a century ago. He was born into a musical family in 1926. His father played the violin and his mother was a pianist who had taken lessons with the great Isidor Philipp. His grandparents included a former Moscow Conservatory professor and it was his grandmother who gave him his first piano lesson at the age of five as a birthday present. His début performance was in Mozart’s D minor Concerto when he was just ten and he received critical praise when he repeated the concerto later that year with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The attention he attracted with this performance led to performances with Sir John Barbirolli – the finale of Mendelssohn’s G minor concerto – and, now aged twelve, a New York Town Hall recital that included Bach’s second Partita and Beethoven’s Sonata op.26 as well as Brahms, Schumann and Chopin. His parents didn’t like the idea of his suffering as a touring prodigy so he returned to full time education at the age of fourteen playing just one major concert in the next five years; significantly it included the sort of major romantic works that he became known for, Brahms’ F minor Sonata and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an exhibition amongst them. After graduating in 1946 and a final concert – Beethoven’s E flat concerto under Serge Koussevitzky – he left for Paris which became his permanent home. He did return to America for what was his single Carnegie Hall recital but the rest of his success was centred in Europe. He toured extensively, performing over 100 concerts each year, venturing as far as South Africa, Australia and South America as well as most European countries. He played Khachaturian’s concerto under the composer’s baton and in 1963 performed the complete piano works of Brahms in four recitals which he followed in 1964 with the five Beethoven concertos. Planned recordings of Brahms chamber music were mostly left unfulfilled due to Katchen’s fading health; his final public appearance was in London where he performed Ravel’s Concerto for the left hand.

This set fittingly begins and ends with Brahms. The first concerto was a work he recorded three times and performed several times with the Concertgebouw under Pierre Monteux who was the conductor on his first recording in 1959. This 1965 performance features strong support from Louis de Froment and the Luxembourg players, though I feel the recording favours the strings over the wind a little; we still hear the wind clearly in their featured music such as the D flat section of the second theme. As far as the performance is concerned this is big bold playing from all concerned and Katchen displays a rich, golden tone even in quiet passages and a tremendous technique that doesn’t flinch in the face of this concerto’s fearsome demands. His sure sense of forward momentum keeps us in mind that, for all its weight and grandeur, this is still the product of a composer in his early twenties. His tonal balance and scarcely withheld passion in the suspension filled chords of the adagio are heart wrenching and he has a firm grip on dramatic intensity as he shows in the approach to the F sharp minor section of the same movement. Orchestra and conductor match his fervour and rhythmic swagger in the finale.

His appassionata from 1951 is vigorous and dynamic. Katchen adopts a swift tempo, bringing the first movement in at 9:05 without it sounding rushed, still allowing plenty of time to breathe. His dynamic palette is wide and I love the contrast he finds in figuration between clear rhythmic snap and a velvety murmur. In the first variation of the second movement I have seldom been so aware of how modern the off beat harmonic clashes between left and right hand sound but he then follows up with utter simplicity of touch in the next variation. The finale is again swift and not taking the repeat brings him in under five minutes though he suffers no lack of clarity; indeed I found his light handed approach rather refreshing, leaving the real drama for the coda. A very special reading. Disc one ends with the twelfth rhapsodie of Liszt that is frankly astonishing both from the depth of tone he brings to the lassen and the fearlessness with which he approaches the friska, a true virtuoso feast. Meloclassic have three previous Katchen recitals under their belt and this seems to be the first Liszt; I hope its not that last.

Disc two opens up with Gershwin, the Concerto and Rhapsodie in blue recorded in a single March concert with the Munich radio orchestra under Carmen Dragon, an American composer, arranger and conductor. Katchen had recorded both works six years earlier with Mantovani and his orchestra and a 1968 recording of Rhapsodie in blue with István Kertész and the London Symphony Orchestra appears to have been his final studio recording. I am not entirely sure how comfortable the orchestra were with the idiom; they are on top of things for the most part but some of the rhythms are a little stiff and ensemble occasionally suffers. In the slow movement the cor anglais enters a bar late in the final bars before the piano enters and eighteen bars later Katchen actually ends up playing the oboe part when he realises it failed to appear. His tempi are once again on the speedy side and as exciting as this is I was ready for a bit more spaciousness at times; the pochissimo meno mosso should have a cheeky sprightliness about it but instead sound rather breathless while the finale is something of a rush and occasionally a scramble with some orchestral ensemble suffering from the precipitous tempo. For all that this is edge of you seat stuff that the audience evidently responded well to. The iconic opening of Rhapsodie in blue is fairly edge of your seat as well – was the clarinet actually going to get there? Spoiler alert – it does and sounds quite authentic in the first solo but getting to that top B flat took some doing. Dragon coaxes some very decent playing out of the Munich players and the jazz solo instrumentals all sound very idiomatic and include some of the raspiest (is that a word?) brass notes I have ever heard in the piece. They hold their own with Katchen who once again impresses though often favours speed in the more virtuosic elements. The repeated notes section after the big tune comes across as just a technical exercise when it is pushed to this hectic pace; Gershwin marks this agitato e misterioso but Katchen brings no mystery to the music and ignores Gershwin’s start slowly and gradually increase in speed. Little points perhaps but it detracts from what is otherwise a thrilling performance.

Katchen was hailed as a great artist but one critic pointed out the limited scope of a recital when he played Schubert and the romantics and Harold C. Schonberg was disappointed with his choice of the Schumann piano concerto for a Philharmonic Hall concert noting that the pianist’s strengths lay in more contemporary repertoire. A previous release included concertos by Prokofiev, Ravel and Bartók (Meloclassic MC1073) and he recorded Britten’s Diversions and Ned Rorem’s second Sonata commercially but the inclusion nine of the suite of ten pieces For a little white seashell by Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis is rather special – the booklet does not mention why pastorale was omitted. He recorded the suite in 1951 just four years after it was written; perhaps he came across it during the two year European tour he made in 1949-1950? Hadjidakis wrote of the piece “For A Little White Seashell” is an anti-romantic work at least according to the meaning given the word by Copland and Prokofiev in their music. Every exaggeration in interpretation and every arbitrary choice of rhythm ridicules the interpreter and ruins the musical essence of the work. I think Katchen captures that essence very well. The intricacies of the opening march are balanced beautifully and the third piece, conversations with Prokofiev is a delight with its delicate melody moving between G minor and B major, sounding like it would fit right into a Prokofiev ballet suite. Tsamikos follows, a folk song setting with an ever developing complexity to its melody even over its brief 59 second duration. After the hypnotic simplicity of Mantinada there is Ballos, a madcap sabre dance that sounds inspired by the opening of Fuĉík’s entry of the gladiators. A haunting nocturne and vigorous dance complete this excellent collection, a neglected but fine recital piece if ever I heard one.

Brahms’ op.119 is an evergreen recital set of course and Katchen’s colour and character shines through every bar from the intimacy of the opening intermezzo to the rugged grandeur of the final rhapsodie as well as the dance that Brahms imbues in the second and third intermezzi, elegantly traced here. Another winner from Meloclassic in their usual high quality transfers and consistently excellent presentation.

Rob Challinor

Contents
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor Op.15
Orchestre de Radio-Luxembourg
Louis de Froment (conductor)
rec. 8^th October, 1965 Grand Théâtre, RTL, Luxembourg (radio studio recording)
4 Klavierstücke Op.119
rec. 15^th September, 1963 Freimann Studio 1, BR, Munich (radio studio recording)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata No.23 in F Minor Appasionata Op.57
rec. 4^th November, 1951 Funkhaus Studio 1, BR, Munich (radio studio recording)
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Hungarian Rhapsodie No.12 in C Sharp Minor S.244 No.12 (radio studio recording)
rec. 20^th November, 1963 Freimann Studio 1, BR, Munich
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Piano Concerto in F Major
Rhapsodie in Blue
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Carmen Dragon (conductor)
rec. 16^th March, 1961 Kongress-Saal des Deutschen Museums, BR, Munich (live recording)
Manos Hadjidakis (1925-1994)For a Little White Seashell Op.1
rec.4^th November, 1951 Funkhaus Studio 1, BR, Munich (radio studio recording)