Jean Catoire’s Piano Works: Volume 7

The last two volumes in Nicolas Horvath’s project to record the complete piano works of French composer Jean Catoire show the first break in chronological ordering. That is because the eighth (and final) volume is the last of the three volumes consisting only of a single composition, Opus 520. The seventh volume “flanks” that composition, since it accounts for three pieces, Opus 427, Opus 504^ter, and Opus 546.

This volume shows another interesting departure from its predecessors. Each of the first six volumes tended to explore a single approach to composition, exercised through one or more different pieces. Each of the three pieces on the seventh volume, on the other hand, explores its own unique strategy; and each involves a different durational span.

The strategy for Opus 427 begins with an exploration of the unfolding of monody, and that unfolding eventually gives way to two voices in counterpoint. The composition is structured in three separate movements, each of which follows that strategy of progression from one to two voices. The first and third movements are of about the same duration of half an hour, while the second movement lasts for a little more than 40 minutes. In other words the entire composition fills about 100 minutes. The piece has a dedication, which appears to be to Catoire’s second wife, Catherine.

Opus 504^ter is the shortest of the three pieces. It consists of two separate movements with an overall duration of about 45 minutes. This is more polyphonic than Opus 427. There is a sense of repeated chimes against which are woven two “melodic” voices. This is a memorial composition, dedicated to the composer Vladimir Byutsov. Thus, it may (or may not) be that the composer interpreted those “repeated chimes” as providing a funereal context.

The final composition, Opus 546, is the longest, filling three CDs with about two and a half hours of music. The work is structured in four movements, the first two on the first of the CDs. Each of the four movements amounts to a study in chord progressions.

To the extent that one is inclined to approach each individual composition as some form of journey, it is worth considering quoting one of Catoire’s sentences that appears (in Horvath’s English translation) in the booklet for the entire collection of piano compositions:

Each note possesses its own absolute value, inscribed in the absoluteness of the other notes; each note must be played by itself, there is therefore no phrasing in the musical sense of the term.

One might think that an adjective like “absolute” negates the possibility of variation. However, it is clear from the collection taken as a whole that Catoire explores a diversity of contexts, each of which carries is own semantics, so to speak, of “absolute.”

Over the course of those first six volumes, the attentive listener becomes aware of the very idea of diversity of context. Having thus been conditioned by the long forms on those earlier albums, that listener is now prepared for greater diversity in the varying the scale of duration. How will the long form of Opus 520 define and/or explore diversity of scale will be left to the listener to describe, and this listener is looking forward to exploring how the one remaining performance in this collection with fit in with all the others!