Some time ago relatives from the USA brought me a historical recording by David Oistrakh made during the late forties and early fifties. Together with pianist Alexander Goldenweiser he is playing works by a composer I had never heard of. When I listened to the CD my surprise and my curiosity grew with each bar. Who was the composer of this beautiful, genuine music with the
unmistakably personal flair?

Georgy L’vovich Catoire was born in Moscow on April 27th 1861, to parents of French descent. Already at an early age he showed his musical talents, and in 1875 he began to study piano and composition with the famous virtuoso and former disciple of Franz Liszt Karl Klindworth, who had been teaching at the Moscow Conservatory since 1869. Klindworth was an ardent admirer of the music of Richard Wagner and had upon the Master’s personal request prepared the vocal scores of the ‘Ring’. In Klindworth’s class young Catoire soon became a dedicated Wagnerian and in 1879 entered the Wagner Society. At that time Wagner’s operas were hardly known in Russia, and leading Russian composers like Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Anton Rubinstein, and Taneyev among others thoroughly disliked and rejected his works. Within this musical environment Klindworth felt increasingly isolated, especially after Nicolai Rubinstein had passed away in 1881, and one year later he returned to Berlin. The loss of his adored teacher added to Catoire’s state of disorientation. From the beginning his family had expressed their skepticism if not opposition towards his professional musical ambitions. Aside from his musical education Catoire had studied mathematics and science at Moscow University and in 1884 graduated with high honors. He accepted a position in his father’s office, a job that left him unfulfilled and frustrated. His parents on the other hand noticed with annoyance that their son refused to even think of burying his dream of a musical career. Since Klindworth was far away in Germany Georgy had turned to V. I. Vilborg, one his teacher’s disciples, asking for instruction and advice. As a result of these lessons, various pieces for piano, an unpublished piano sonata and a number of transcriptions were written, including a piano version of Introduction and Fugue from the First Orchestral Suite by Tchaikovsky, which the composer enjoyed so much that he later recommended it to his editor, Jurgenson for publishing. Nevertheless Catoire was not entirely happy with Vilsborg’s teaching and in 1885 travelled to Berlin to resume studies with Klindworth. In the summer of 1886 during a short visit to Moscow an encounter took place that would prove essential for Catoire’s life and for his career as a composer. He met P. I. Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky, impressed by the set of piano variations shown to him by the young man, strongly encouraged him, “It would be a sin if you did not devote yourself to composition!” After returning to Berlin Catoire started taken composition and theory lessons from Otto Tirsch, was unsatisfied and switched to Philippe Rüfer’s class and in 1887 decided to permanently return to Russia. From Germany he brought with him a string quartet recently written (only a slow part has survived in manuscript), which he presented Tchaikovsky and Taneyev upon their second meeting. The two experienced colleagues at once noticed the obviously great talent but also the deficiencies and shortages. With a letter of recommendation (“very talented... but in need of serious schooling") Tchaikovsky sent Catoire to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg, who after only a single lesson passed him on to A. Liadov. Although Catoire working under Liadov’s guidance completed several works later published the relationship between teacher and student yet another time proved unsatisfactory for either side. It is probable that Catoire as a student should have been a rather difficult customer, because already early in his career he had his very own personal ideas, especially with regard to harmonic structures. And even more importantly Catoire’s zealous dedication to Wagner must have provocatively affected the powerful Rimsky-Korsakov, generally a committed patron of young talents, who couldn’t stand Wagner, and henceforth presented a serious obstacle to the advancement of Georgy’s career and to the spread of his compositions.

After his return to Moscow he became friendly with Anton Arensky. Arensky would remain one of few trusted companions within an environment where he found very little support. He composed another string quartet which he later reworked into a quintet, a cantata “Rusalka”, Op.5, for solo voices, women’s choir and orchestra that in its original version was neither performed nor published. In 1889, after a series of failures and disappointments, he broke off all relations with his family and his fellow musicians and in a state of depression withdrew to the countryside and seriously considered giving up music entirely. Two years later, after having completed his symphony, Op.7, he returned to the musical scene. The first performance of his Romances, Op. 9 brought him a modest success. After that he step by step gained the respect and the recognition of the Russian musical world and in 1916 was appointed professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory. His disciples – the best known is probably Dmitri Kabalevsky – describe him as a strictly systematic teacher, inexorable with regards to the solid command of all compositional implements, maybe as a reaction to the fact that he himself had been largely self taught. He wrote treatises about harmony and musical form which in the Soviet Union were considered standard works of music theory and frequently used. In 1926 he died in Moscow.

Catoire’s musical oeuvre is not extensive; about 40 opus numbers are known. His compositions include piano music (miniatures only!), songs, the symphony, Op.7, one piano concerto, the cantata, Op.5, chamber music. Remarkably for many genres there are unicates.
After his death Catoire and his music soon fell into oblivion. Anyhow out of Russia he had never achieved any noticeable recognition, and in Russia his personal and musical profile did not at all correspond with the ideological demands the new masters expected to be met by a Soviet composer. Indeed a few of his compositions, like the Piano Quartet, Op.31, were reprinted in the USSR during the sixties, and outstanding musicians like Alexander Goldenweiser, David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Leonid Kogan played and recorded some of his works, but still today Catoire ranks among the most neglected composers.

Musicians who intend to study his compositions will have to overcome unexpected obstacles. First of all they might experience considerable difficulties trying to get hold of copies of the scores. Most of his works have been out print for decades, and one has to acquire one of the few still existing copies of the original editions. (In the case of the Elegy, Op.26, things turned out to be especially complicated. I could not find the music in any of the big libraries or archives. Finally my Russian colleague, Grigori Zhislin, discovered a copy in the Miaskovsky Archives in Moscow. Thanks a lot, Grischa!). Furthermore Catoire’s compositions are very hard to play and of formidable virtuoso demand, interspersed with technical and rhythmic difficulties.
Besides Wagner and Tchaikovsky the masters of the Franco-Belgian school around César Franck
exerted an audible influence on the shaping of Catoire’s personal musical style. Catoire himself was very conscious of his French descent, being well acquainted with the compositions of Franck, Fauré and Debussy, and he strived for a synthesis of the different musical worlds. Among the characteristics of his style are a distinctive chromaticism, subtly flowing modulations into distant keys, a preference for altered chords and the use of augmented triads, in his later compositions upon occasion without resolution, complex rhythmic structures, for instance 3 against 5, 4 against 7, hemiolas, sophisticated polyphonic work, romantic vocal texture. It is particularly the combination of extended tonality and rhythmic finesse that bestows upon the music the typical nervously flowing trait reminiscent of Scriabin. However in contrast to Scriabin Catoire never abandons the tonal frame.

The Sonata No. 1 in B Minor, Op.15 was written in 1900 and is dedicated to Nikolai Medtner. It is a dramatic opus of rather symphonic dimensions. The epic first movement in classical sonata form opens with a passionate gesture, a long extended chromatic melody line of the violin above a chain of arpeggiated diminished seventh chords enriched with passing notes forms the second subject, a hugely conceived development section leads in classical tradition to the recapitulation followed by a powerful and virtuoso Coda. The movement closes softly with a gesture of exhausted descent typical for Catoire. The second movement in G-sharp Minor may very well be the saddest Barcarole ever written. In spite of the ending in A-flat the tenderly poetic music never transcends its initial depressive mood. The finale, a sonata rondo, displays a capricious, temperamental character. Sparkling piano cascades contrast the syncopated main theme of the violin, the prevailing meter is artfully intercepted by interspersed 5-quarter bars. Nobody will resist the charm of the second subject in B-flat and in E-flat, the Coda is a stunning virtuoso display closing the sonata in D-Major.

In 1906, with his Sonata No.2 in D-Major, Op.20 (“Poème”), dedicated to Alexander Goldenweiser, Catoire breaks entirely new ground. He wrote a single movement of app. 20 minutes duration composed of various slower and faster sections. In comparison to the earlier work the harmony is clearly advanced, remarkable in its frequent use of successions of augmented chords, the polyrhythmic structures described above occur throughout the whole piece. The composer displays a nearly inexhaustible abundance of musical ideas, lyrical and poetic moments alternate with passages of feverishly dramatic exaltation. Whereas in the first sonata some traits resemble Rachmaninov, an aura of excessive heat reminiscent of Scriabin seems to be pervading the Poème. Formally it is as much or as little a sonata as a fantasy. Noticeably various groups of subjects recur, the introductory theme exuding dreamy sensualism reappears at the end thus providing a frame which keeps together the huge structure. Among Catoire’s compositions for violin and piano the Poème certainly is his most mature and most personal work.

The Elegy in D-Minor, Op.26, composed in 1916, immediately captures the listener’s attention by the charming vocal beauty of the violin melody. Listening more intensely we again become aware of Catoire’s compositional finesse, his mastery of subtly flowing modulations and of rhythmic variability.

The life and work of Maurice Ravel, next to Debussy the most prominent exponent of French musical impressionism, is generally so well known that I want to limit myself to a few remarks.
He was born on March 7th, 1875 in Ciboure near Biarritz at the French Atlantic coast and studied composition with Charles de Bériot and Gabriel Fauré at the Paris Conservatory. Initially he was by no means particularly successful with his music. No less than 5 times he applied for the prestigious “Prix de Rome” and each time failed to win it. Over the years his recognition and fame grew steadily, and latest after the death of Claude Debussy in 1918, he was acclaimed as the greatest living French composer.

The idea to compose the Concert Rhapsody “Tzigane” originated when Ravel met the Hungarian violinist Jelly d’Aranyi, a grandniece of Joseph Joachim for whom already Bela Bartók had written his 2 violin sonatas in 1921 and 1922. Ravel was deeply impressed by the personality and the virtuosity of this fascinating artist and decided to write a “virtuoso showpiece in the style of a Hungarian Rhapsody” (Ravel) for her. Tzigane (gypsies) is a respectfully ironical reference to the genre, one of the most successful violin showpieces of the entire repertory. Tzigane exists in three different versions: for violin and luthéal (a keyboard instrument invented in 1919—basically an amplified concert piano with a modified touch and damper mechanism), for violin and piano and for violin and orchestra. Miss d’Aranyi’s abilities must have been extraordinary. She received the completed manuscript just 2 days before the first performance in London in April 1924.

Pièce en forme de Habanera was composed in 1907 and is originally a Vocalise for bass voice with piano accompaniment. Ravel himself later added a version for cello and piano. The transcription for violin and piano was done by G. Catherine.

Herwig Zack, July 2007