P0867. PETER KATIN: The Complete Préludes (Rachmaninoff). (England) Somm 0110, recorded 1971. Incl. interview with Colin Anderson. - 748871011021

CRITIC REVIEWS:

“Older collectors will need no reminding of the artistry of Peter Katin….one of the very finest pianists the UK has produced….consistent masterly pianism…that any collector, of any age, will want to possess.”

- Robert Matthew-Walker, CLASSICAL RECORDINGS QUARTERLY, Winter, 2012

“His playing is magisterial: one couldn't ask for more insight, intensity, virtuosity in this prodigious repertoire. …the music redefines totally convincingly what a ‘Prélude’ might be: an auspicious fragment of the Beyond. Katin fixes them superbly in the here and now."

- Paul Driver, (London) Sunday Times



“Peter Katin is now regarded as one of the most accomplished pianists of the modern age, having enjoyed a long and extremely successful career. His recordings for Decca and other companies from the 1950s onwards reveal a musician of the highest calibre of artistry and sensitivity.

Born in London, Peter Katin’s musical talent was evident at the age of four, and he was admitted to the senior department of the Royal Academy of Music when he was twelve, four years before the official age of entry. The success of his Wigmore Hall début in 1948 started him on a career that has taken him throughout the world (he was the first British artist to give a post-war solo tour of the then USSR).

He has now almost forty recordings, more than at any other time in his career, which have been received with critical superlatives. These include the complete Chopin Nocturnes and Impromptus, Grieg Lyric Pieces, Chopin Waltzes and Polonaises and the Rachmaninov Preludes. A live performance of a recital including the Liszt Sonata was released by Athene to a rave review in Classic CD. His interest in period pianos has resulted in three such recordings, as well as an all-Chopin programme on his own Collard & Collard 1836 instrument, and another on a Broadwood grand that was personally used by Chopin on the occasion of his last visit to London.”