There are two recitals in this two-disc set devoted to Cuban-born
pianist Jacob Lateiner (1928-2010). He was brought up in America,
studying at Curtis alongside his talented violin playing brother
Isidor, and had performed as soloist with the Philadelphia and
Ormandy, and with Koussevitzky in Boston, by the time he was
17. He recorded for Columbia, Westminster but most importantly
for RCA, and was a distinguished teacher. Perhaps some of his
most widely released performances were those in which he anchored
the chamber ensemble led by Jascha Heifetz, though as Parnassus’s
set makes abundantly clear, he was a pianist of dramatic flair
and imagination in whatever context he chose to perform.
The earlier recital was given at the Frick Collection in New
York in March 1964. His Schubert is forward moving, perhaps
a touch too brisk for some, and with strongly etched rubati;
but Lateiner ensures that the paragraphal implications of the
three Impromptus D899 are recognised. He remains subtle, even
at the slightly terse tempo and rhythm adopted in the G flat.
His Beethoven Op.31 No.3 illustrates a comprehensively more
successful stylistic acumen; rich voicings, witty inflecting
of the Scherzo, rhythmic vitality in the Presto
and genuinely con fuoco but without forcing through the
tone. Small tape damage-there is some of that at various points
during the set - is of little account.
His performance of Berg’s Op.1 is an ear opener. It’s
full of control and clarity but whilst not untrue to the idiom
suggests a slightly warmer, late Romantic expression that other
pianists tend to elide, or gloss. Prokofiev’s Toccata,
composed just a few years later, is memorably dispatched, before
he ushers in some Chopin-four Preludes from the Op.28
set and the four Op.33 Mazurkas. The Preludes are attractively
done, the Mazurkas trim, brisk and terpsichorean. His
Polonaise in A flat is leonine and dynamic though there
are annoying tape drop outs in the Fantasie-Impromptu
Op.66.
Nearly fourteen years separate the two recitals, the second
having been given at Juilliard in January 1977. This was a more
solidly executed piece of programming - two Beethoven sonatas,
the Brahms Variations on a theme of Paganini and ending with
Mendelssohn’s Scherzo in E minor. I think it’s also
true to note that the playing is at a consistently higher level
throughout, not that the Frick Recital shows sloppy playing
at all, but that Lateiner’s very best qualities are profoundly
explored in this more concentrated and heavyweight recital.
His Beethoven sonatas make a prettily contrasting pair - the
Op.2 No.1 in F minor and Op.111: First and Last words indeed.
One senses from the cantabile flexibility of phrasing in the
slow movement of Op.2 that this will be an especially finely
judged performance, and so it proves An abundance of digital
clarity is accompanied finesse and finely sustained tempos The
far greater challenges of Op.111 are similarly met, with the
Arietta unfolding in true Beethovenian style, songful,
strange, abrupt and overpowering. His Brahmsian credentials
cement his work in the two sonatas. This recital is of consistently
elevated merit.
I’ve noted tape glitches but they’re less apparent
in the 1977 recital. Parnassus is undertaking excellent work
in making available these recitals and I hope their plea for
more previously unreleased Lateiner performances is heeded.
Jonathan Woolf
Jacob Lateiner (piano) 