Nikolai Kapustin - Blueprint (Frank Dupree; Jakob Krupp; Meinhard 'Obi' Jenne)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Kapustin

• Day-Break, Op. 26 "Sunrise"
• 8 Concert Etudes, Op. 40 (selections)
• Variations, Op. 41
• Motive Force, Op. 45
• Big Band Sounds, Op. 46
• 24 Preludes, Op. 53 (selections)
• End of the Rainbow, Op. 112
• Paraphrase on Blue Bossa, Op. 123
• Paraphrase on Aquarela do Brasil, Op. 118

Frank Dupree, piano

Jakob Krupp, bass

Meinhard 'Obi' Jenne, drums

Date: 2022

Label: Capriccio

http://capriccio.at/nikolai-kapustin-blueprint

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

In welcoming the unrestrained brilliance of Frank Dupree in Kapustin’s Fourth Piano Concerto (A/21), I compared the experience to listening to ‘a carefully notated extended improvisation by the great Peter Nero and Oscar Peterson … with further input from Art Tatum, Count Basie and Bill Evans’. Here is more of the same but in chamber form. Dupree has made a careful selection of 23 short works for solo piano – works that might lend themselves to being played by a jazz trio – and brought in bass player Jakob Krupp and drummer Meinhard ‘Obi’ Jenne. Crucially, all three musicians are equally at home with classical music as they are with jazz.

The result is a heady 68 minutes of music giving the impression – if you were listening blind – of a well-drilled jazz trio improvising on some favourite numbers of their own. So it is something of a paradox to read in this CD’s booklet a quote from Kapustin himself: ‘I was never a jazz musician. I have never attempted to be a genuine jazz pianist, although I have to slip into this role for the benefit of my compositions. I am not interested in improvisation – and what would a jazz musician be without improvisation?’

Part of the problem is that few of Kapustin’s themes are hummable or particularly memorable (I am puzzled by the assertion, referred to in the booklet, that Kapustin is ‘often described as “a Russian in Gershwin’s clothing”’). In a stream of short pieces, such as presented here, everything ends up sounding much the same. The music may change (as it sometimes does from bar to bar, from bossa nova to swing, to stride piano and the blues), but the same or similar figurations, idiosyncrasies and rhythmic patterns are used repeatedly. And it is the addition of bass and drum kit (the latter placed slightly too forward in the balance and at the expense of the bass) that emphasise this. Listen to the Variations in the miraculous hands of Marc-André Hamelin (Hyperion, 8/04) or the selection of Preludes in Jazz Style from the no less gifted Steven Osborne (Hyperion, 8/00) and the character of Kapustin’s unique voice – ‘the notation of improvised music’ – shines more brightly and tellingly.

That is not by any means to dismiss the Dupree Trio’s versions of this music. They offer a compelling alternative view. And it would be churlish to deny the pleasure given by three guys whose technical and musical accomplishments are of a very high order.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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/

***

Frank Dupree (born 6 December 1991 Rastatt, Baden-Württemberg) is a pianist, conductor, drummer and composer. He studied piano with Sontraud Speidel and conducting with Péter Eötvös and Hans Zender at the University of Music Karlsruhe. In 2012, he was awarded first prize at the International Hans von Bülow Competition. In addition to being a pianist and conductor, Dupree is also a passionate chamber musician who effortlessly crosses genre boundaries. His avid interest in contemporary music is reflected in his world premieres, and close collaborations with composers such as Wolfgang Rihm and Péter Eötvös.

https://www.frank-dupree.de/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!