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This is Henry Fogel welcoming you to another edition of Collectors' Corner. Today's program is gonna feature a Polish American pianist Thaddeus Kozuch, born in Chicago in 1913. If you listen regularly to collector's corner, you know that I often at the end of the program suggest that people should write to me, and if they have suggestions for future collectors' corners, I would certainly consider them. Well, in April of 2024, I received an email from Jon Kozuch, the son of Pianist Thaddeus Kozuch, and Jon suggested that I might like to consider a program devoted to his father. So I said, what I would in that circumstance always say, send me a sample to let me listen.

I listened and I was captivated, absolutely captivated by the combination of poetry and virtuosity. So Jon then carefully assembled a group of CDs from which I would draw a program on Collectors' Corner.

I will tell you more about Thaddeus Kozuch as we go on in the program, but I'm going to begin with three pieces by one of the composers in whom he specialized, and this is probably something you'd expect from a pianist of Polish heritage. Three Nocturnes by Frederick Chopin Opus 9 number 1 in B flat minor, and Opus 9 number 3 in B Major, and then Opus 15 number 1 in F Major. These are from live performances in the Chicago area between 1974 and 1986.

Thaddeus Kozuch that, by the way, Thaddeus is T-H-A-D-D-E-U-S, and Kozuch is K-O-Z-U-C-H. And I did check with Jon Kozuch on the pronunciation of his father's name. So here is Thaddeus Kozuch playing three Nocturnes by Frederick Chopin.

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• Chopin Nocturne Opus 9 number 1 in B flat minor

• Chopin Nocturne Opus 9 number 3 in B Major

• Chopin Nocturne Opus 15 number 1 in F Major

Three Nocturnes of Frederick Chopin performed in live performance by Thaddeus Kozuch. We're featuring this Polish American pianist on Collectors' Corner.  Chicago born, and for most of his life, a Chicago resident, taught in Chicago. Studied with Rudolph Ganz at the Chicago Musical College. Thaddeus Kozuch's son prepared the recordings on this program. They're all from live performance recordings. I'm very grateful to Jon Kozuch for the work he did on preparing this program.

1.2 We're going to turn now to a performance of a Sonata by Franz Joseph Haydn. This is the Sonata in D Major number 33 from Hoboken Volume 16, the keyboard Sonata by Franz Joseph Hayden. This from a recital given at DePaul University on March the 30th, 1978. Pianist Thaddeus Kozuch.

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• Haydn - Sonata in D Major number 33 from Hoboken Volume 16

From a recital given in 1978 at DePaul University in Chicago, Thaddeus Kozuch played the Sonata in D Major Opus 33 from Hoboken volume 16, Music by Franz Joseph Haydn. We're going to return now to Chopin. We will throughout this program return to Chopin frequently because that was perhaps the most significant specialty of the pianist Thaddeus Kozuch. Although, as you heard, he played that Haydn Sonata with beautiful, graceful elegance.

1.3 Here are a three preludes from Opus 28. He played the Opus 28 Preludes at a recital, again at DePaul in 1975, and we're going to hear three. All of these, of course, are live performance recordings, all provided by the son of the pianist, Jon Kozuch, to whom I'm very grateful. Here are the preludes numbers 3, 4, and 23 from Opus 28. From this recital, the pianist, Thaddeus Kozuch.

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• Chopin Preludes from Opus 28 numbers 3, 4, and 23

Three Preludes for the piano by Frederick Chopin, performed by Thaddeus Kozuch, Polish American pianist, born in Chicago in 1913, died in 1991. His son, Jon Kozuch, suggested this program and provided the recordings. I am thrilled to be able to present them to you. These are all private recordings. They're not on the market, but it would give you an idea of one of the fine American pianists that simply didn't have, for whatever reason, an international concert career.

Kozuch by the way, during World War II, he was a US Army soldier stationed in England. An officer heard him practicing and immediately moved him to be playing for wounded soldiers in hospitals. He also performed in Chicago after the war at Orchestra Hall with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and with a number of other orchestras.

1.4 One of his other specialties was the music of Claude Debussy. And that won't surprise you because you can hear in his Chopin playing his extraordinarily sensitive ear for color and balance, and that's central to successful Debussy playing. Here from a recital given at DePaul University in 1975, on March 21st, 1975, we're going to hear four preludes from book one of Debussy, the Hills of Ana Capri, Footsteps in the Snow, What the West Wind has Seen, and finally, La cathédrale engloutie - The Sunken Cathedral. Thaddeus Kozuch plays Debussy.

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• Debussy Prelude from book one, The Hills of Ana Capri

• Debussy Prelude from book one, Footsteps in the Snow

• Debussy Prelude from book one, What the West Wind has Seen

• Debussy Prelude from book one, La cathédrale engloutie - The Sunken Cathedral

1.5 Four preludes from Book one of Debussy, performed by pianist Thaddeus Kozuch. We're featuring this Polish American pianist on Collectors' Corner and we're going to continue now with a look at a different side of the repertory, sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. We're going to hear a group of five of them now. Kirkpatrick number 14 in G Major, Kirkpatrick number 141 in D minor, Kirkpatrick number 441 in B flat Major, number 466 in F minor, and number 477 in G Major.  Five sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, played by Thaddeus Kozuch in recordings made in different live performances in the 1970's and eighties.

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• Scarlatti Sonata Kirkpatrick number 14 in G Major

• Scarlatti Sonata Kirkpatrick number 141 in D minor

• Scarlatti Sonata Kirkpatrick number 441 in B flat Major

• Scarlatti Sonata Kirkpatrick number 466 in F minor

• Scarlatti Sonata Kirkpatrick number 477 in G Major

A group of sonatas for the keyboard by Domenico Scarlatti, performed in recital by Thaddeus Kozuch. This Polish American pianist is our featured artist on Collectors' Corner. This is the WFMT Radio Network.

2.1 Announcer: Your listening to classical WFMT Chicago on 98.7 FM, HD 1, WFMT.com and the WFMT mobile app.

We're featuring on Collectors' Corner today the Polish American pianist, Thaddeus Kozuch, born in Chicago in 1913. These recordings were all provided to me by his son, Jon Kozuch. He wrote to me about six months ago and suggested a program of his father's playing. I wasn't familiar with it, so I asked him to send me some samples, and when I heard the playing, I realized that this was a perfect artist to share with you on Collector's Corner.

These are all live performance recordings. They're not commercially available. This is the only place you'll hear them, and I think his playing is exquisite. It's that combination that you look for and don't always find of virtuosity and poetry lyricism. Those qualities are both apparent in this recording, made in 1986 of the Chopin Ballade number 4 at F Minor. Obviously, by the way, all of these are live performance recordings.

Some of them not the best in high fidelity reproduction, although I've taken quality of sound into consideration in choosing which of his performances to share with you. Here is Chopin's Ballade number 4 in F minor from a 1986 performance.
 

• Chopin Ballade number 4 in F minor

2.2 A dramatic performance of the Ballade number 4 in F minor by Chopin, played by our featured artist on Collectors' Corner Thaddeus Kozuch. A little bit more Chopin Now. Chopin was one of the specialties of Thaddeus Kozuch. Here are two Mazurkas. These are two particularly beautiful recordings, I think.  One from 1978 is the Mazurka Opus 41 number 2 in E minor. The other from 1979 is the Mazurka Opus 56 number 3 in C minor.
 

• Chopin Mazurka Opus 41 number 2 in E minor

• Chopin Mazurka Opus 56 number 3 in C minor

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2.3 Two Mazurkas of Frederick Chopin, played by our featured artist on Collectors' Corner, Thaddeus Kozuch. We're going to change styles now and actually go to a piece that was written for Thaddeus Kozuch by another Chicago musician, composer Russell Wood.

Russell Wood for many years was a teacher in Chicago. He taught at the Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University. He taught voice, composition, conducting, and orchestration. Obviously a versatile musician, Wood wrote this piano sonata for Kozuch. It's a brief but just charming work, and also fiendishly difficult, and it shows off Kozuch's brilliant technique. The piano sonata by Russell Wood.
 

• Russell Wood Sonata

2.4 Piano Sonata by Chicago composer Russell Wood, written for Thaddeus Kozuch who played it in a 1960 recording. We're going to turn now to two works by another Polish composer. We had quite a bit of Chopin earlier. This is Ignacy Jan Paderewski composer, and of course, brilliant and world famous pianist. I've always enjoyed Paderewski's music and wish it were performed more often.

Here are two works by Paderewski played by Thaddeus Kozuch. In 1986, this performance of the Cracovienne Fantastique Opus 14 number 6 in B Major, and then a 1977 performance of a very beautiful Nocturne in B flat Major Opus 60 number 4.
 

• Paderewski Cracovienne Fantastique Opus 14 number 6 in B Major

• Paderewski Nocturne in B flat Major Opus 60 number 4

2.5 Two works by Ignacy Jan Paderewski played by Thaddeus Kozuch.  A Cracovienne fantastique and a Nocturne. And I apologize for the fact that it had a little noise under the piano sound in that recording of the Nocturne, but I thought the performance and the piece were so beautiful it was worth sharing with you.

We're going to turn now to an Etude by Alexander Scriabin. This is an Etude in B flat minor Opus 8 number 10. In 1974 performance by Thaddeus Kozuch, and apparently the composer himself described this quite accurately I think, as a knuckle buster.
 

• Scriabin Etude in B flat minor Opus 8 number 10

2.6 The famously difficult Etude by Alexander Scriabin, Etude in B Flat minor, played by Thaddeus Kozuch.

We're going to turn now to another Polish composer. We played both Paderewski and of course a lot of Chopin, but it's not surprising that this Polish American pianist would also feature the music of Karol Szymanowski in his program. Here are two beautiful Mazurkas by Szymanowski Opus 50 numbers 1 and 2.
 

• Szymanowski Mazurka Opus 50 number 1

• Szymanowski Mazurka Opus 50 number 2

2.7 Two Works by Karol Szymanowski, two Mazurkas Opus 50 numbers 1 and 2, played by Thaddeus Kozuch.

We're going to go back now to where we started with this program, music of Frederick Chopin. Clearly a favorite of Thaddeus Kozuch, and he a brilliant interpreter of the music of Chopin. It makes sense that he would have this natural feel for the rhythms of Chopin, which have their root in the folk dances of Poland. This is particularly true of the Mazurkas. They're very tricky to play, actually. And what is so wonderful about Kozuch's playing of them is the natural flow of the rhythms of the Mazurkas. Here are three of them, Opus 7 number 2, Opus 30 number 4, and Opus 33 number 2.
 

• Chopin Mazurka Opus 7 number 2

• Chopin Mazurka Opus 30 number 4

• Chopin Mazurka Opus 33 number 2

Three Mazurkas of Frederick Chopin played by Thaddeus Kozuch. Thaddeus Kozuch was a pianist born in Chicago in 1913. He died in 1991. A Polish American pianist of frankly, extraordinary quality, even though he did not have the kind of international career that you might expect, frankly, of someone who plays as beautifully as he did. This program was suggested to me by his son Jon Kozuch, who provided the recordings. They were all live performances. They're private recordings, they're not available for sale on the marketplace, but I'm grateful to Jon for sharing these with me and allowing me to share them with you on Collectors' Corner.

This is Henry Fogel. I hope you've enjoyed this edition of Collectors' Corner, that you'll join me next week for music by the Chinese composer, Xiaogang Ye.
Collector's Corner is distributed by the WFMT Radio Network.