JACQUES KLEIN (1930-1982)
Brazilian pianist

Jacques Klein began his study of the piano quite early age, but when he was 13 he gave up his classical studies to form a jazz trio with two of his friends, a guitarist and a drummer.  He achieved success which resulted in the trio's appearing weekly on the radio.  At the age of 18, he returned to his classical studies first becoming a pupil of William Kapell in New York City and then of Bruno Seidlhofer in Vienna.  A first prize at the Geneva International Music Competition launched his career as a concert pianist.

There is a controversy regarding the Appassionata recording which claims that the pianist is not Jacques Klein but rather Sviatoslav Richter in a live 1960 performance.  I do not believe it can be Richter.  His Beethoven is more deliberate and neither his performances in Prague and Kiev in 1959, nor his 1960 Leningrad performance, which are all very similar to each other, sound anything like this one which I will continue to believe to be by Klein until proven wrong.

The last four examples are performances of music that was close to his heart.  See if you can hear influences on the flexibility of line and rhythm in the performances in his classical recordings.  I get a sense of something similar to that in the playing of Oscar Levant.

Beethoven  Piano Sonata 23 in F minor, Op 57 "Appassionata"