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Biography
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), and in those earlier
years he was greatly influenced by his meetings with Clifford Curzon, Claudio Arrau
and Myra Hess, who gave him much advice for which he has always been deeply grateful.
His early successes seemed centred round the classical composers; he was greatly in
demand for Mozart concerto performances in particular and he also developed a rare
talent for chamber music. However, a performance of Rachmaninov's D minor Concerto
in 1953 changed his image almost overnight, and hailed as a virtuoso of the first
order he was constantly in demand for the most taxing of romantic concertos until
the late sixties, but by that time he decided that he needed to make a more in-depth
study of the composers who had almost escaped him when he was immersed in the
big major works.
The first composer in this specialised study was Chopin, and since that time he
has become regarded as one of the finest interpreters of this composer's music.
He was sufficiently encouraged to make similar studies of Schubert, Schumann,
Debussy and Liszt, and as a result has given a number of one-composer recitals.
His repertoire now is very flexible and he is happy about performing concertos by
Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms in one week, while keeping a very wide variety of
styles in his recital programmes.
His constant encouragement of the preserving of individuality in young artists
has been one factor in the conferral during 1994 of an Honorary Doctorate by De
Montfort University, and as a teacher, he has had highly successful years at the
Royal Academy of Music, The University of Western Ontario, the Royal College of
Music and Thames Valley University.
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 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, and another on a Broadwood grand that was used by
Chopin on the occasion of his last visit to London.
Peter Katin gave an anniversary recital at Wigmore Hall on 13 December 1998,
exactly fifty years from the date of his début, celebrated his seventieth birthday
in November 2000, and his seventy-fifth birthday in 2005.
His acclaimed recording of the complete Mozart sonatas were reissued by Altara Music in July 2008,
and a new CD of four Haydn sonatas await release; a Chopin recital (originally for Olympia) from
Somm Recordings has been very favourably received. Peter Katin has supported several charities
in the past, and he has given no less than fourteen recitals which have raised vital funds for
the Chernobyl Children's Project (UK).
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