Piano Music: Volume 2

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NIKOLAI KAPUSTIN
Piano Music: Volume 2
Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano)

[ Hyperion / CD ]

Release Date: Tuesday 13 July 2004

This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.

"..under the virtuoso fingers of Marc-André Hamelin Kapustin's music comes alive with an ease that sounds like improvistion. A fascinating discovery."
- Editor's Choice Gramophone magazine (August 2004)

"Never heard of Nikolai Kapustin? Well, don't worry: you're not alone. Born in the Ukraine in 1937 this classically trained pianist (he studied with Goldenweiser) has successfully managed the bringing together of two apparently disparate worlds. And under the virtuoso fingers of Marc-André Hamelin Kapustin's music comes alive with an ease that sounds like improvistion. A fascinating discovery."
- Editor's Choice Gramophone magazine (August 2004)

Here is a disc to set the pulse racing. Nikolai Kapustin is a Russian composer who writes jazz piano music teeming with energetic spontaneity and bristling with the kind of creative immediacy one associates with improvisation (although the music is fully and meticulously written out). Kapustin is already known to the Hyperion catalogue through Steven Osborne's trail-blazing recording of the first two Piano Sonatas and the Preludes in Jazz Style, and Marc-André Hamelin is another pianist who has for years played his music in concert. Hamelin's legendary technical prowess and his exceptional affinity with jazz fuse to create one of the most sparkling, infectiously foot-tapping piano discs you could wish to hear.

In a recital spanning various traditional instrumental genres, Marc-André Hamelin includes two sets of studies. In terms of their stylistic breadth, formidable technical challenges and audacious invention, the Eight Concert Études (1984) hold their own against the celebrated benchmarks in the genre, from Liszt and Lyapunov to Godowsky's re-worked Chopin. The Five Études in Different Intervals (1992) begins with a madcap study in minor seconds recalling the bouncy demeanor of Zez Confrey's Kitten on the Keys (although here someone has dosed poor kitty with Grade A Catnip!), and ends with an octave study to end all octave studies. Throughout, Kapustin's bottomless well of thematic resoursefulness works overtime.

Tracks:

Variations Op 41 1984 [6'58]

Eight Concert Études Op 40 1984 [22'19]
No 1 Prelude Allegro assai [1'56]
No 2 Dream Moderato [3'13]
No 3 Toccatina Allegro [2'06]
No 4 Reminiscence Larghetto [4'29]
No 5 Shuitka Vivace [2'17]
No 6 Pastoral Allegro moderato [2'25]
No 7 Intermezzo Allegretto [3'18]
No 8 Final Prestissimo [2'30]

Bagatelle Op 59 No 9 1991 [1'53]

Suite in the Old Style Op 28 1977 [13'48]
Allemande [2'28]
Gavotte I - Gavotte II [3'08]
Sarabande [4'57]
Bourrée I - Bourrée II [1'46]
Gigue [1'24]

Piano Sonata No 6 Op 62 1991 [13'18]
Allegro ma non troppo [6'09]
Grave [4'36]
Vivace [2'30]

Sonatina Op 100 2000 [3'28]

Five Études in Different Intervals Op 68 1992 [15'28]
No 1 Allegro Étude in minor seconds [2'58]
No 2 Allegro Étude in fourths and fifths [2'51]
No 3 Animato Étude in thirds and sixths [2'42]
No 4 Vivace Étude in major seconds [2'51]
No 5 Animato Étude in octaves [4'00]