Nikolai Kapustin - Works for Two Pianos (Daniel del Pino; Ludmil Angelov)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Kapustin

• (01) Concerto for two pianos and percussion, Op. 104
• (04) Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40
• (12) Piano Sonata No. 14, Op. 120
• (15) Paraphrase on Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca" for two pianos, Op. 129

Daniel del Pino, piano (1-11, 15)

Ludmil Angelov, piano (1-3, 12-15)

Juanjo Guillem & Rafael Gálvez, percussion (1-3)

Date: 2010

Label: Non Profit Music

https://nonprofitmusic.org/spanish/4kapustin.html

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

Aside from George Crumb’s Music for a Summer Evening, there are very few masterpieces for two pianos and percussion to stand alongside Bartók’s famous sonata for those forces. Nikolai Kapustin’s Concerto belongs in this select company. It’s a masterpiece. The composer’s personal jazz-inflected style fits the medium like a hand in a glove, and the performance here is absolutely marvelous. Pianists Daniel del Pino and Ludmil Angelov play with uninhibited gusto, while the duo Neopercusión provides an irresistible rhythmic impetus. Really, it’s impossible to recommend this music highly enough: Kapustin is one of contemporary music’s most original and distinctive voices.

The Eight Concert Etudes are getting to be well known, and have been recorded several times, including by the composer himself, marvelously. Marc-André Hamelin’s Hyperion recording, though, may be the easiest to find, and it’s also outstanding. Del Pino hasn’t quite the technical dazzle of Hamelin; his tempos are a bit more relaxed, but some listeners may well prefer his more lyrical approach, and slower doesn’t mean less virtuosic. In the atrociously difficult Sonata No. 14 (which even the composer says he has not played), Ludmil Angelov offers a brilliantly exciting premiere performance.

Kapustin’s Paraphrase on Dizzy Gillespie’s “Manteca” makes a perfect encore, and brings both of the pianists together for a rousing finale. The sonics are excellent: big, bold, well-balanced, but never hard, and (difficult in music for two pianos) never overloaded. This is one of the most enjoyable and worthwhile discs of contemporary music to come along is quite a while. Don’t miss it! [1/21/2011]

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH

https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/del-pino-and-angelov-have-a-ball-with-kapustin/

https://www.audaud.com/nikolai-kapustin-22-4kapustin-concerto-for-two-piano-and-percussion-op-104-eight-concert-etudes-op-40-sonata-14-op-120-paraphrase-of-dizzy-gillespies-mant/

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Nikolai Kapustin (22 November 1937 – 2 July 2020) was a Russian composer and pianist. Kapustin studied piano with Avrelian Rubakh (pupil of Felix Blumenfeld who also taught Simon Barere and Vladimir Horowitz) and subsequently with Alexander Goldenweiser at the Moscow Conservatory. Kapustin was steeped in both the traditions of classical virtuoso pianism and improvisational jazz. He fused these influences in his compositions, using jazz idioms in formal classical structures. Among his works are 20 piano sonatas, 6 piano concerti, sets of piano variations, études and concert studies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Kapustin
https://www.nikolai-kapustin.info/

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Daniel del Pino (born November 1972 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Spanish piano soloist. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, received a master's degree from Yale University (1997) and continued studies at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Among his teachers is the famous Spanish pianist Joaquín Achúcarro, who has greatly influenced Del Pino's career. Daniel del Pino has toured on 5 continents, giving concerts in prestigious venues around the world, such as in Madrid, Paris, Sofia, Taipei and New York. He has recorded music by Chopin, Granados, García-Abril and  Kapustin.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_del_Pino_Gil

http://danieldelpino.weebly.com/

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Born in Varna, Bulgaria, Ludmil Angelov graduated at the Pancho Vladigerov State Music Academy in Sofia. His teachers were Viktoria Spassova, Ludmila Stoyanova and the phenomenal pianist and pedagogue Konstantin Stankovich.Angelov won prizes and diplomas at international competitions, and his debut recital in New York was at Lincoln Center in 1990. The music of Chopin has been of central importance to Angelov’s performing career. Since 2006 Ludmil Angelov has also performed several premieres of works by Nikolai Kapustin. Angelov teaches at New Bulgarian University in Sofia.
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/a.asp?a=A4232

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