Nikolai Kapustin - Piano Music - Hyperion: CDA67433 - CD or download

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…Kapustin's… a Russian (b1937) who's had the bright idea of combining classical forms with a jazz idiom. …the music is full of virtuosity which Marc-André Hamelin handles effortlessly. He also... — BBC Music Magazine, September 2004, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 31st May 2004
Catalogue No: CDA67433
Label: Hyperion
Length: 77 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

August 2004

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Kapustin: Variations Op. 41

Work length6:59

$1.00

$1.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

Kapustin: Eight Concert Études Op. 40

Work length22:16

$8.00

$10.00

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

I. Prelude: Allegro assai

Track length1:56

$1.00

$1.25

II. Dream: Moderato

Track length3:13

$1.00

$1.25

III. Toccatina: Allegro

Track length2:06

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Reminiscence: Larghetto

Track length4:29

$1.00

$1.25

V. Shuitka: Vivace

Track length2:17

$1.00

$1.25

VI. Pastoral: Allegro moderato

Track length2:25

$1.00

$1.25

VII. Intermezzo: Allegretto

Track length3:18

$1.00

$1.25

VIII. Final: Prestissimo

Track length2:32

$1.00

$1.25

Excerpt, Kapustin: 10 Bagatelles, Op. 59

Work length1:54

$1.00

$1.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

IX. [untitled]

Track length1:54

$1.00

$1.25

Kapustin: Suite in the Old Style Op. 28

Work length13:45

$5.00

$6.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

I. Allemande

Track length2:28

$1.00

$1.25

II. Gavotte I – Gavotte II

Track length3:08

$1.00

$1.25

III. Sarabande

Track length4:57

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Bourrée I – Bourrée II

Track length1:46

$1.00

$1.25

V. Gigue

Track length1:26

$1.00

$1.25

Kapustin: Piano Sonata No. 6 Op. 62

Work length13:17

$3.00

$3.75

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

I. Allegro ma non troppo

Track length6:09

$1.00

$1.25

II. Grave

Track length4:36

$1.00

$1.25

III. Vivace

Track length2:32

$1.00

$1.25

Kapustin: Sonatina Op. 100

Work length3:29

$1.00

$1.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

Kapustin: Five Études in Different Intervals Op. 68

Work length15:24

$5.00

$6.25

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)

I. Allegro: Étude in minor seconds

Track length2:58

$1.00

$1.25

II. Allegro: Étude in fourths and fifths

Track length2:52

$1.00

$1.25

III. Animato: Étude in thirds and sixths

Track length2:43

$1.00

$1.25

IV. Vivace: Étude in major seconds

Track length2:51

$1.00

$1.25

V. Animato: Étude in octaves

Track length4:00

$1.00

$1.25

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About

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 Osbornes trail-blazing recording of the first two Piano Sonatas and the Preludes in Jazz Style, and Marc-Andre Hamelin is another pianist who has for years played his music in concert. Hamelins 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-Andre Hamelin includes two sets of studies. In terms of their stylistic breadth, formidable technical challenges and audacious invention, the Eight Concert etudes (1984) hold their own against the celebrated benchmarks in the genre, from Liszt and Lyapunov to Godowskys re-worked Chopin. The Five etudes in Different Intervals (1992) begins with a madcap study in minor seconds recalling the bouncy demeanor of Zez Confreys 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, Kapustins bottomless well of thematic resoursefulness works overtime. A disc to dazzle your friends with and play guess the composer!

Reviews

September 2004

…Kapustin's… a Russian (b1937) who's had the bright idea of combining classical forms with a jazz idiom. …the music is full of virtuosity which Marc-André Hamelin handles effortlessly. He also turns in some tight jazz timing - sometimes it's surprising to learn that he isn't improvising, but then you realise that it's all perhaps just too perfect.

2010

'Crossover' is an old rather than recent tradition, whether the jazz elements are peripheral as in Ravel or central as in Kapustin. Jed Distler, writing for Hamelin's disc in a style as witty and engaging as the music itself, speaks of a Chick Corea-based language that lifts a romantic virtuoso tradition into a beguiling quasi-improvisational style and holds it up to a fun-house mirror. Such high-pitched claims arguably fail to account for too many family likenesses (be they variations, studies or sonatas) or a style that too often suggests composition as a facile rather than arduous process (like Saint-Saëns, Kapustin 'produces music as an apple-tree produces apples'). Nonetheless, there are many scintillating surprises. The Variations' gawky theme blossoms into the sort of elaboration that would have made Bill Evans envious, while the second of the Op 40 Etudes ends with a passing memory of Liszt's Au bord d'une source, reminding you of Kapustin's work as a virtuoso pianist with Alexander Goldenweiser. No 6, Pastoral, a dream encore, sends a tiny cell-like motif spinning through a variety of guises. The Bagatelle's perky tune would not be out of place 'in a Brazilian Chorino' (Distler) and everything on this remarkable disc is played with a nonchalant aplomb and magical dexterity hard to imagine from any other pianist. Hamelin is in his element, and he's been immaculately recorded.

Everything on this remarkable disc is played with a nonchalant aplomb and magical dexterity hard to imagine from any other pianist

Nikolai Kapustin - Piano Music

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