Kapustin: Piano Music

An album to set the pulse racing. Nikolai Kapustin was a Russian composer who wrote piano music in a decidedly jazz idiom, with all the spontaneity one might associate with improvisation—the only catch being that the music was fully and meticulously written out. His music can be heard regularly today in the concert hall as crowd-pleasing encores, but at the time of recording (2003) it was relatively little known. Marc-André Hamelin was one of Kapustin’s earliest advocates, and this recording (virtually Marc’s best-selling album) did much to bring the composer’s music to a wider audience. Gramophone wrote upon its original release: ‘Everything on this remarkable disc is played with a nonchalant aplomb and magical dexterity hard to imagine from any other pianist.’

Tracklisting:

Side A
1 Variationen op. 41

Acht Konzertetüden op. 40
2 Prelude: Allegro assai
3 Dream: Moderato
4 Toccatina: Allegro
5 Reminiscence: Larghetto
6 Shuitka: Vivace
7 Pastoral: Allegro moderato
8 Intermezzo: Allegretto
9 Final: Prestissimo

Suite in the Old Style op. 28
Side B
1 Allemande
2 Gavotte I – Gavotte II
3 Sarabande
4 Bourrée I – Bourrée II
5 Gigue

Fünf Études in Different Intervals op. 68
6 Allegro: Étude in minor seconds
7 Allegro: Étude in fourths and fifths
8 Animato: Étude in thirds and sixths
9 Vivace: Étude in major seconds
10 Animato: Étude in octaves