In Piano We Trust ( Nicolas Horvath blog ): Jean Catoire (1923 - 2005 ) The 1st French Minimalist composer

Again a "coup de cœur" for my second post dedicated to piano compositions.

This one is what i call my "2012 discovery". And it is due to my friend and excellent composer (that you really have to check out too) Frédérick Martin. As some day we spoke, and when he was aware of my very strange tastes, he told me to ckeck out the compositions of his old conductor teacher "Jean Catoire", that i might really like it.

After a phone call, i was invited by his widow (Catherine Catoire) to his house. As we talked quite a lot, and after a very nice tea, Catherine gave me a huge mass of score, and ... that was only piano!!!

When i opened them, i really liked what i saw : a wonderful mixture of Arvo Pärt and Morton Feldman. But the real shock came at the end of the 1st score ... composed in ... 1967 !!!! 9 years before Arvo Pärt composed his "Für Alina" !!! The same year Philip Glass was still in experimenting the Shankar influence ! And more than that : at a period where France was deeply under the serialism dogma ! No composer in France was supposed to compose in this way at this time !

And... he stopped to compose for piano solo in 1988 !

Jean Catoire

Jean Catoire was a student of Messiaen, and as all his students started to compose in the "atonalism way", and in 1960 he changed radically his way. As Catherine told me, he got a revelation, and was able to see a sketch of the composition, a kind of "perfect achitecture" (for me sounded like the famous sketches that Scriabin used to wrote to make a "perfect scheme" for his late music).

As a result his master and all his friends and followers totally stopped to respect him, as ... he was doing something too far away from the serialism.

As you will be able to discover with the 6 videos (Opus 134, 145, 154, 204, 205 & 206), Catoire music is slow, meditative and you are loosing all senses of space and time. And even after a little moment you can even experience the "Wheel within the Wheel" effect. Simply fabulous, Satie could not dream of something better when he was preparing his famous Vexations.

So this is a list of all piano solo compositions of Jean Catoire. You can also see that they are from 6 minutes long to 4 hours and 30 minutes.

Opus 43	6 minutes	Opus 224	45 minutes
Opus 60	10 minutes	Opus 256	50 minutes
Opus 77a	11 minutes	Opus 278	1 heure 30 minutes
Opus 92	10 minutes	Opus 283	10 minutes
Opus 134	8 minutes	Opus 296	30 minutes
Opus 137	2 heures	Opus 303 ter	3 heures 30 minutes
Opus 145	6 minutes	Opus 312	4 heures 30 minutes
Opus 154	10 minutes	Opus 318	10 minutes
Opus 157	2 heures 30 minutes	Opus 319	10 minutes
Opus 162	15 minutes	Opus 320	12 minutes
Opus 163	20 minutes	Opus 321	10 minutes
Opus 164	50 minutes	Opus 322	12 minutes
Opus 204	15 minutes	Opus 410	25 minutes
Opus 205	15 minutes	Opus 420	3 heures
Opus 206	15 minutes	Opus 427	3 heures
Opus 207	15 minutes	Opus 504 Ter	2 heures
Opus 210	15 minutes	Opus 520	4 heures
Opus 211	30 minutes	Opus 546	2 heures

I try as much as possible to perform and premiere his piano works, so the public can be aware of this forgotten genious.

I am planning to perform his complete piano music in a 35 hours long concert. But unfortunately... i could not make it for the 10th Birthday of Catoire death. I really hope to do it later.

But after many tests, i must confess that Catoire music, is not mixing with everything. Otherwise the audience will simply not understant it. Surrounded by early Liszt , Chopin or Rachmaninov it will not work. On the other hand, some slow Satie, late Liszt or even better Pärt, Feldman or Otte will be perfect !

Enough talk, and now it's time to enjoy! Turn off the light, take a nice green tea or red wine, and meditate! : ))

Opus 134