Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Schubert's Waltzes and Dances) (rec 1946-1952)

"It looks as though Kapell's recordings have to be taken as evidence of what might have been rather than as already complete statements. But what might have been was so full of promise that those interested in the history of piano-playing in the 20th Century should definitely not regret paying the modest Naxos price to hear it."
(MusicWeb Aug 2005)

When William Kapell was killed in a plane crash at the age of 31 on 29th October 1953 the world was robbed of a great talent. He learnt the piano with Olga Samaroff, one-time wife of Stokowski, at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and then at the Juilliard School. At the age of nineteen his career took off when he won the Philadelphia Orchestra's Youth Competition. He also won the Naumberg Award which supported his New York début at Town Hall where he also gained the award for most outstanding musician under thirty. He then toured North and South America, Europe and Australia.

With his dynamic performances and Byronic beauty, it is not surprising that RCA Victor signed Kapell in 1944. Although he played a wide repertoire that included Bach, Mozart, some Beethoven, Chopin, Copland, Barber, Debussy and more, he became known for his performances of the romantic Russian repertoire, in particular Rachmaninov's Second and Third Concertos and the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Prokofiev's Third Concerto and Khachaturian's Piano Concerto. All the most eminent conductors of the day wanted to collaborate with Kapell, and he performed concertos with such illustrious names as Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, Fritz Reiner, and Serge Koussevitzky.

By 1946 the 24-year-old Kapell had already stunned audiences with his performances of large romantic piano concertos by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Khachaturian and had recorded the Khachaturian Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Serge Koussevitzky in April 1946. Two months later Kapell gave a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat, Op. 19, at Carnegie Hall with the NBC Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Golschmann. Although he played Bach and Mozart, he rarely programmed the works of Beethoven. As a teenager, like many gifted adolescents, Kapell played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37, but during his short adult career tended to avoid the Piano Sonatas and Piano Concertos with the exception of the early Piano Concerto No. 2, which was actually written before Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15, but published later. It still has traces of Mozart's style, and this could be what appealed to Kapell.