AMERICAN PIANIST ON THIRD N.Z. VISIT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29220, 2 June 1960, Page 9

AMERICAN PIANIST ON THIRD N.Z. VISIT

' Back in Christchurch for his third concert tour of New Zealand tn five years, the Americanfjom pianist Julius Katchen announced yesterday the arrival last month in London of a new potential musician in the family. "‘Terhaps,” Mr Katchen said yesterday, "my son Stefan (the first child born to the musician and his French wife) will naturally follow in his father’s handjteps as a result of living 24 hours a day with music. On the other hand he might react strongly against it. Either way js all right with me, for I am pot banking on my son growing jp to be a musician.” The boyish jaunty vitality of Julius Katchen, who at the age of 33 has blossomed into one of the world’s finest pianists, was noted during previous visits to Jiew Zealand.

Interviewed yesterday, wearing * blue turtle-neck sweater, sports coat and sports shoes, he again gave a refreshing impression of t personality different from the conventional classical pianist. Dragging a chair forward to sit straddle-legged around its hack he remarked on the welcome relief of such casual clothes for • concert pianist who must wear formal evening suits so often. Beethoven Work Enthusiastic about New Zealand audiences. Mr Katchen said that they were giving his rendering of Beethoven’s 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli an extraordinary reception. “It is a rare musical treat and one of the greatest masterpieces written for the piano,” he said. “A work

wluch takes 55 minutes to play, « « exluueUng to the artist and encompases every facet of tech . mque imaginable.” ref l u ired such Ce ’ l u PhySiCally and em °- tionaHy, that most performers preferred to leave it alone, it had Mr effect on audiences, Mr Katchen said. It caught them P in a great stream and carried them flowingly along. It is as an interpreter of Beethoven’s composition that Mr hatchen’s reputation has built up since his last visit here in 1957. Giving the impression of tremendous energy, vvhich must'surely be one of the special gifts which distinguish disciplined artists trom ordinary mortals, Mr K-atchen’s descriptions of his concert tours during the last two years and his appearances planned for the summer in hurope make the senses reel.

Antique Collectors In Paris, where he and his wife make their home, though they are rarely there, he lives in a house built for Kaiser Wilhelm in 1913. The top floor, which was built as a ballroom, he has turned into a studio and the story below is converted into a four-room apartment.

There the Katchens keep a collection of antiques. “We never have any money—it all goes on collecting,” Mr Katchen said. "It is a good investment, of course, better than putting money in the bank, but then, when you want money, it is hard to part with a piece.” On his way to New Zealand he had the good luck to acquire in Singapore a set of jades from the third to the tenth century, “just out of Red China.” Most of his jade pieces are carvings of animal subjects.