Dedicated ‘à mon ami G. Conus’—i.e., Georgy Conus, one of a noted generation of musical brothers—these five pieces form, in their own way, a counterpart both to Rachmaninov’s own Op 10—the seven
Morceaux de salon of 1893/4—which Guthiel published in 1894, and the early sets of piano works by Scriabin. What places Catoire’s Op 10 on a similar level to these works is his use of thematic transformation. The opening Prélude announces a simple theme, but one whose simplicity is constantly spun into new aspects. The melodic germs which make up these ideas are further developed in quite unusual ways in each of the following pieces—the second, an effortlessly flowing Prélude, the brilliant Capriccioso in G sharp minor (a masterpiece), the nocturnal
Réverie in A flat and the final impressionistic
Légende in A major.
from notes by Robert Matthew-Walker © 1999
