For Kapell fans, exciting news:

[thracozaag]

https://www.sonybmgmasterworks.com/news/index.html#200926

Took them long enough; I hope they improved sound quality from the transfers of the recordings I have, but even if not, the performances are fantastic anyway.

[dnephi]

Spectacular!  It's a terrible tragedy that he died so young. 

I look forward to this eagerly.

[rachfan]

That's great news!  Kapell absolutely owned the Khatchaturian Piano Concerto.  I didn't discover Kapell until the 1960s, because he died in the plane accident when I was only 8 in third grade and just beginning piano lessons.  While I was at university though, I used to call in  Kapell's Khatchaturian Concerto as a request to the university radio station, and got it on the air so often, it almost became a weekly fixture!  His Liszt Mephisto Waltz and Evocacion by Albeniz are also memorable.
 
Another legendary young pianist I always think of from that same era along with Kapell, and who also died way before his time, was Dinu Lipatti.  His Schumann Piano Concerto remains a benchmark to this day.  He also recorded some wonderful Chopin performances.

Had Kapell and Lipatti lived decades longer, imagine their careers and legacies of extensive discographies that might have been.       

[vlhorowitz]

Absolutely can't wait to hear the Chopin pieces - especially the Scherzo. I can only imagine what Kapell did with that piece after listening to his Mephisto Waltz on repeat for a week. It's a shame that it's taken them over half a century to release these recordings to the public. 

[Mozartian]

*spazzes*

YAY!!!!!!!!

[arensky]

                                       

[mike_lang]

Had Kapell and Lipatti lived decades longer, imagine their careers and legacies of extensive discographies that might have been.       

Or Egorov!

[rachfan]

Yes, Egorvov who also passed on in his 30s--another huge loss to the music world.  We should also recall Julius Katchen who died in his early 40s and was a wonderful interpreter of Brahms.

[thracozaag]

Terence Judd (22)
Dino Ciani (33)
Noel Mewton-Wood (31)
Joseph Villa (46)
Steven De Groote (36)

[rachfan]

Joseph Villa was a wonderful pianist.  I have his recording of Liszt's "Annees de Pelerinage, Premiere Annee, La Suisse" and remember listening to his rendition of "Vallee d'Obermann" when I was studying the piece years ago.  He had full command of the instrument and obtained a great sound.  My teacher at the time mentioned that Villa had been in competitions with him.  It's sad he's gone.

Howard Lebow (32)

Another fine pianist who died young was Howard Lebow.  He won third prize as a U.S. entrant  at the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt in 1960 in what was then West Germany during the Cold war.  The focus of that competition was new music.  In the 1960s he was one of the youngest and most promising of U.S. pianists.  He toured 15 countries after his 1963 Manhattan solo debut, playing works including those of composers such as Edward Levy and Erich Kahn.  At the time our paths crossed, he was Artist in Residence at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where I was a student.  I attended a couple of his on-campus recitals and was very impressed by his artistry.  In the late 1960s I auditioned with Howard (he also played Baldwin), and he immediately accepted me as a student.  Just as I was preparing assigned repertoire, the terrible news came about a week later that he had been killed in an automobile accident right in the town of Amherst.  I was stunned!  He was only 32 years old.  He was well liked by his students, was very down to earth and self-effacing, and had a great sense of humor too.  That was about 40 years ago, so probably few still recall him.  I'm glad to be able to post this remembrance here.

[dnephi]

Villa's Beethoven 5th symphony absolutely blows away every other recording I've ever heard.  It is spectacular in terms of control, power, technique, and just plain effectiveness.