Mindru Katz (; 3 June 192530 January 1978) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i classical pianist.

Biography

Katz was born to Jewish parents in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

in 1925. He was discovered as a

child prodigy A child prodigy is, technically, a child under the age of 10 who produces meaningful work in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to describe young people who are extraordinarily talented in some f ...

by the noted composer

George Enescu George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanians, Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor, teacher and statesman. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history. Biography En ...

, and taught by

Florica Musicescu Florica Musicescu (21 May 1887, Iași–19 March 1969, Bucharest) was a renowned Romanian pianist and musical pedagogue, daughter of the renowned composer, conductor and musicologist Gavriil Musicescu. She taught piano music for many decade ...

.Bach Cantatas
/ref> He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in Bucharest in 1947, in which year he also made his debut with the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra. He had an international career, visited 40 countries, and played under conductors: Sir

John Barbirolli Sir John Barbirolli ( Giovanni Battista Barbirolli; 2 December 189929 July 1970) was a British conductor and cellist. He is remembered above all as conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, which he helped save from dissolution in 1943 ...

, Sir

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

Sergiu Celibidache Sergiu Celibidache (; ; 13 August 1996) was a Romanian people, Romanian Conducting, conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher. Educated in his native Romania, and later in Paris and Berlin, Celibidache's career in music spanned over fi ...

Sergiu Comissiona Sergiu Comissiona (Hebrew: סרג'ו קומיסיונה; June 16, 1928 – March 5, 2005) was a Romanian- Israeli- American conductor and violinist. Biography Early life Born in Bucharest, Romania in a Jewish family, he began violin studies at ...

Antal Doráti Antal Doráti (, , ; 9 April 1906 – 13 November 1988) was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1943. Biography Antal Doráti was born in Budapest to a Jewish family. His father Alexander Do ...

Josef Krips Josef Alois Krips (8 April 1902 – 13 October 1974) was an Austrian conductor and violinist. Life and career Krips was born in Vienna. His father was Josef Jakob Krips, a medical doctor and amateur singer, and his mother was Aloisia, née Seit ...

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (; March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in t ...

Harold Byrns Harold Byrns (13 September 1903 – 22 February 1977) was a German-American conductor and orchestrator. Biography He was born Hans Bernstein in Hanover, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire, in 1903. His father had formed a chamber music society ...

Yuval Zaliouk Yuval Zaliouk (; born 1939 in Haifa) is an Israeli-American conductor. Biography Yuval Zaliouk was born into a musical family. He attended the Haifa Academy of Music Alfred Wallenstein Alfred Wallenstein (October 7, 1898 – February 8, 1983) was an American cellist and conductor. A successful solo and orchestral cellist in his early life, Wallenstein took up conducting in the 1930s and served as music director of the Los Ang ...

. Katz migrated to

in 1959. He joined the faculty of the Rubin Academy of Music in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

, and became a professor of piano in 1972. His most notable pupils are Mordecai Shehori, Astrith Baltsan and Angela Borochov (née Angela Stone). He was a jury member at the first

Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition is an international piano competition specializing in the music championed by Arthur Rubinstein. The competition has been held every three years in Tel Aviv, Israel since 1974. History ...

in Tel Aviv in 1974 (won by

Emanuel Ax Emanuel "Manny" Ax (born June 8, 1949) is a Grammy Award-winning American classical pianist. He is known for his chamber music collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Young Uck Kim, as well as his piano recitals and p ...

), together with

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein Order of the British Empire, KBE OMRI (; 28 January 1887 – 20 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

himself,

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (; 5 January 1920 – 12 June 1995) was an Italian classical pianist. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. According to ''The New York Times'', he was perhaps the most reclusive, ...

Eugene Istomin Eugene George Istomin (November 26, 1925October 10, 2003) was an American pianist. He was a winner of the Leventritt Award and recorded extensively as a soloist and in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose. Care ...

and others. Katz was renowned particularly for his recorded interpretations of J. S. Bach, Beethoven, the concertos of Khachaturian and

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

, and the violin sonatas of

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, often set within studied ye ...

and

Franck Franck can refer to: People * Franck (name) Other * Franck, Argentina, town in Santa Fe Province, Argentina * Franck (company), Croatian coffee and snacks company * Franck (crater), Lunar crater named after James Franck See also * Franc (di ...

(with

Henryk Szeryng Henryk Bolesław Szeryng (usually pronounced ''HEN-r-ik SHEH-r-in-g'') (22 September 19183 March 1988) was a Polish- Mexican violinist. Early years He was born in Warsaw, Poland on 22 September 1918 into a wealthy Jewish family. The surname ...

; this was the only recording Szeryng ever made of the Franck SonataMusic Web International
/ref>). He also recorded the music of Chopin, Debussy, Enescu, Fauré, Haydn, Liszt, Mozart, Ravel, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky.
/ref> His recordings received consistently high critical acclaim, and his playing was often compared with that of

Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz (November 5, 1989) was a Russian and American pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all time, he was known for his virtuoso technique, timbre, and the public excitement engendered by his playing. Life ...

. His great performance is the Beethoven Emperor Concerto conducted by Sir John Barbirolli in 1958 on PYE records.

Death

At the age of 52, Katz died of a heart attack on stage during a recital in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, while performing

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

's Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, ''Tempest''. He left behind a wife and daughter.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Mindru 1925 births 1978 deaths Romanian classical pianists Jewish classical pianists Jewish Romanian musicians Jewish Israeli musicians 20th-century Israeli classical pianists 20th-century Romanian educators 20th-century Romanian male musicians 20th-century Romanian Jews 20th-century Israeli educators 20th-century Israeli male musicians 20th-century Israeli Jews Romanian music educators Israeli music educators Piano educators Romanian emigrants to Israel Musicians from Bucharest Musicians who died on stage