Peter Katin 1930-2015

[Roehre]

Very sad news indeed. Among my first purely piano LPs his are prominently represented - and still on my shelves.
His comments on these boards were always a joy to read.
RIP Peter Katin

[pastoralguy]

I read the thread title and just said "Oh no!". How very sad. I had noticed he hadn't contributed here for while.

My reaction exactly.

My father was a merchant seaman and one of the perks of his job was being able to take his family away for voyages. Our family went on a trip that covered Europe, The Panama Canal, Japan and Australia. I mention this since I was just getting interested in classical music and one of my father's tapes was Peter Katin playing the Grieg concerto on CfP with John Pritchard and the LPO. I listened to it over and over again on the six months we were away whilst looking out the ever changing cabin window. I still have that tape so I'll try to listen to it again. (Not sure if it ever came out on cd).

RIP, Mr . Katin.

[Stanley Stewart]

Sad news, indeed. Some years ago, on the R3 mbs, I'd written about the acquisition of a print of "Moonlight Sonata" (1937) in which Paderewski made a rare appearance and opened the film with a piano recital, although the real stars were Marie Tempest and a young Eric Portman. Peter Katin responded as he had been looking for a print for many years and I gave him chapter and verse.

Coincidently, he came to mind a few days ago as I was browsing Solo, the biography of Solomon ( Bryan Crimp, 1994.). Chapter 26, Abschied, covers the era when Solomon was stricken by a stroke and how his wife Gwendolyn was a superb ministering angel, carefully monitoring the prolific number of visitors who wanted to visit him at their St John Wood's home.

"...Some came simply to talk of the piano and pianists. Peter Katin, for one,
vividly recalls his one visit, 'a rather quiet affair in 1960'.

"My meeting took place the day after I had played the Tchaikovsky first concerto at a Prom. I had previously written to Solomon to ask if we could meet - I was hoping that he would ask me to play. (I had written to Gwendolyn just after Solomon had suffered his severe stroke and received a simple and moving reply:
"He doesn't seem to make much progress, I'm afraid, so we can only hope".)
I arrived in torrential rain and was touched to see Solomon, who had walked with considerable difficulty since his stroke, answering the door himself. He said little at first, as though wondering how I would take to his very halting laboured speech and it was left to Gwendolyn to do most of the talking. Later, Solomon took a more active part in the conversation, although a sentence was frequently halted by the inabilty to form a particular word - and sometimes by the wrong word altogether emerging,when he showed the only sign of impatience and shook his head crossly. I learnt that he listened to a lot of music at that time and so we were able to talk about recent concerts."

Must now check to find whether Peter ever wrote a biography. I think not. A pity as he clearly had a round, unvarnished tale to tell, although his recitals and recordings will always speak for him and his innate eloquence. RIP

[antongould]

Very sad, especially for us here assembled. By a peculiar bit of happenstance my iPod went "flat" on my early morning walk - I have just gone to check it has charged and staring at me was Mr. Katin's handsome face from the cover of his Chopin Nocturnes. I shall play them this evening.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

He gave a recital in Bangor when I was a student. He was often dismissed as "lightweight" - absolutely untrue.

[teamsaint]

RIP

[DracoM]

Very sad. Respected poster on here, and more than that, one of the very finest interpreters of his chosen field. Thank God, his repertoire is well recorded.

[Dave2002]

Very sad. I remember listening to his performances of Chopin on some early pianos, and illustrating how they gave a different feel to the music in one of the BBC's efforts to educate us all a few years ago. It was kind of him to visit us here on this board, and I hope that he got something out of our collective efforts in return.

[makropulos]

Terribly sad news - a real gentleman and a terrific pianist who was often badly under-rated.
RIP, Peter Katin. You will be greatly missed.

[Barbirollians]

The orchestral concert CD of Chopin from the Fairfield hall that came out two of three years back is a joy with very immediate piano sound and a particularly fine Third Sonata.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a contributor here of great charm and distinction

[Observation Postr]

Probably this Country's leading exponent of the works of Rachmaninov and Chopin.

Only a year ago, he was still giving piano recitals in his own locality.

An authorative voice on these message boards and he will be sadly missed.

Thank you, Peter Katin

R.I.P

[aeolium]

I admired his eloquent contributions here and his recordings particularly of Chopin and of the Mendelssohn piano concertos (and generally the early romantic repertoire).

A great loss

[ardcarp]

Indeed very sad news. Despite his having been (as someone put it) out of the limelight for a while, he was IMO a truly great pianist...and may I urge the BBC to make a programme about his life?

[verismissimo]

I've got out his Rachmaninov Preludes, which I've had and enjoyed for three or more decades on LPs. Will listen to them again over the weekend.