American pianist Julius Katchen (1926-1969) enjoyed an unprecedented world career, and almost half a century after his death he is still regarded as an unsurpassed Brahms interpreter.

As an eleven-year-old, Katchen sat on the podium as a soloist in Mozart’s D minor Concerto at the invitation of Eugene Ormandy in New York. Soon he was highly praised as a performer around the world, due to his technical brilliance, coupled with boldness, a seemingly endless range of timbres, and a superior musical understanding. Besides some vital Brahms performances, many of his other recordings presented here from 12 original albums from the years 1950 to 1961 are also among the highlights of record history. These include Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and solo works by Chopin, Schumann, Schubert and Balakirev to concertos by Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Bartok, and Britten.