Kapell plays Shostakovich Prelude No. 5 in D major, Op. 34

Prelude No. 5 in D major from 24 Preludes, Op. 34

Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Performer: William Kapell (1922-1953) (piano)

Kapell was born in New York City of Russian Jewish descent. There he studied with Dorothea Anderson La Follette, then with Olga Samaroff in Philadelphia and at the Juilliard School.

He won his first competition when he was 10. The prize was a turkey dinner with the pianist Jose Iturbi. In 1941, he won the Philadelphia Orchestra's youth competition and the Naumburg Award. The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation then sponsored his New York début which brought him The Town Hall Award for the year's outstanding concert by a musician under 30.

He was a serious artist from the beginning, practicing up to eight hours a day. He achieved fame in the next few years, most especially by his performances of Khachaturian's Piano Concerto. Kapell played it so convincingly that his recording became an enormous hit.

By the late 1940s, Kapell had toured the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia to immense acclaim and was widely considered the most brilliant and audacious of young American pianists. In 1947, he wed the former Rebecca Anna Lou Melson, with whom he had a happy marriage and two children. With maturity, a new sense of spaciousness made itself manifest in Kapell's pianism and he began to set aside time for work with the artists he most admired, studying with Artur Schnabel and playing with Pablo Casals and Rudolf Serkin.

He spent his last summer in Australia, where he played 37 concerts in 14 weeks, appearing in Sydney, Melbourne, and regional cities such as Bendigo, Shepparton, Albury, Horsham and Geelong. It was in Geelong that Kapell played his last performance on October 22 shortly before setting off on his return flight to the United States. The plane hit Kings Mountain, south of San Francisco, on the morning of October 29, 1953. None of the crew or passengers survived.

There was some tendency to typecast Kapell as a performer of flashy repertory. While his technique was exceptional, he was a versatile musician, and could also give memorably graceful performances of Mozart.

In the decades since his death, the fascination with this powerful musician has continued. Pianists such as Eugene Istomin, Gary Graffman, Leon Fleisher and Van Cliburn, and classical-fusion jazz pianist Suezenne Fordham, among others, have acknowledged Kapell's influence, and tapes of "live" performances still circulate among collectors. Kapell's widow Anna Lou Dehavenon, a social anthropologist in New York deserves much of the credit for helping to keep her husband's name alive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kapell

Category:

Music

Tags:

• William
• Kapell
• Dmitri
• Shostakovich
• Prelude

[mrscience00]

I wonder if they're still on fire.

[bbiguy]

I wonder if his fingers were on fire afterwards.

[pianodavid53]

@kc10101 You are right, but someone of Kapell's ability already knows that, it is creative licence!

[WatchBlueSkies]

super!

[marcxopoco]

Great.

[gnimez]

crrraaazzzyy. i think this speed is almost 230 cpm

[lingsy81]

I played this when i was 13 for my exam! But well... that is just one crazy speed..