Composer: Nikolai Kapustin
Performer: Frank Dupree, Jakob Krupp, Meinhard Jenne, SWR Big Band
Orchestra: SWR Symphonieorchester
Conductor: Dominik Beykirch
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Capriccio
Catalogue: C5528
Release: 2024
Size: 660 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
01. Variations for piano solo and big band, Op. 3 (1961)
02. Toccata for piano solo and big band, Op. 8 (1964)
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 14 (1972)
03. I. Allegro molto
04. II. Andante
05. III. Rondo-Toccata: Vivace
06. Nocturne for piano and orchestra, Op. 16 (1972)
Concert Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, Op. 25 (1976)
07. I. Introduction
08. II. Humoresque
Piano Concerto No. 6, Op. 74 (1993)
09. I. Allegro
10. II. Larghetto
11. III. Allegro giocoso
When Nikolai Kapustin’s music was discovered by a wider audience in the West, it certainly came as a shock: Who was this Soviet composer, whose music mostly resembled an Oscar Peterson improvisation, but was notated in heavily detailed scores? As we continue to discover more of his music, not least on this new recording, Kapustin shows how he developed his style subtly and steadily, always moving with the times. As the music that influenced him changed, so did his own. The development of Big Band Jazz can be traced in his work and, in that sense, Kapustin never settled on one style, except that he fused jazz and classical music so inseparably in the first place.