Georges Catoire

On 13 May 1924, Georges Catoire’s Violin Sonata No. 2 was played by Dmitry Tsïganov and Samuil Feynberg as part of the inaugural concert of the Association for Contemporary Music (ACM) in Moscow. Anyone who knows anything about Soviet music will recognize the status attaching to those performers and that event, and the only surprise might be that a composer as conservative and apparently insignificant as Catoire should have been among those featured. But that surprise comes from a misunderstanding of terms. ‘Contemporary’ at that time and in that place carried little or no implication of exclusivity or experimentation, and ‘conservative’ loads the dice unfairly against music that has many shades in its background influences and foreground styles. As Anna Zassimova rightly asserts, the Sonata is ‘perhaps the most beautiful of Catoire’s works’ (p. 176); among its four recordings to date is one made in 1948 by David Oistrakh and Alexander Goldenweiser, two more legendary names from the Russian pantheon.

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