Jan Smeterlin ∙ Piano Recitals 1951-1958

Jan Smeterlin made only a few commercial recordings for Polyphon, Allegro and Philips. The recordings featured on this album represent a significant new discovery of this pianist. All works on this album were never commercially recorded by Smeterlin and therefore missing from his commercial legacy. During his career, he began to devote himself to recital work rather than to concerto performances. He played many all-Chopin programs and he incorporated music of contemporary piano literature, having been the first to introduce the works of Albéniz to Berlin, besides pioneering certain compositions of Mompou, Szymanowski, Koechlin, and Dukas. During the second World War he lived in the United States. In April 1946, he returned to England to rebuild his European career. Subsequently, he became an eminent figure in European music circles, and made extensive annual tours through the continent, including the Scandinavian countries. He was particularly popular in the Netherlands, appearing frequently on Dutch radio program. Two of these broadcast have survived and are hereby published for the first time. Furthermore, a radio recording of the Liszt Sonata could be discovered in Switzerland.

Meloclassic would like to thank Maurice Fitzmaurice, pupil of Jan Smeterlin, for his assistance with this release. He shared with us his recollection of his former teacher. Click the pdf titled ‘A Pupil’s Memoire‘.