Nikolai Kapustin; A Bu - New Memories

Information

Composer: Nikolai Kapustin; A Bu

• A Bu - Fantasie “Sleeping in a Dream”, Op. 7
• Kapustin - Variations for Piano, Op. 41
• Kapustin - Concert Studies (Etudes) for Piano, Op. 40
• A Bu - Piano Sonata No. 1 “Pinus”

A Bu, piano

Date: 2022

Label: Wergo

https://www.schott-music.com/en/new-memories-no562507.html

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Born in Beijing in 1999, pianist and composer A Bu models his work after the late Nikolai Kapustin, whose compositions fuse jazz idioms and classical forms. Although A Bu’s four-movement Piano Sonata No. 1, composed in memory of Kapustin and his wife, is occasionally cliché-ridden (the derivative melodies, the reliance on glissandos to make dramatic points), the music flows easily and sincerely. If anything, the Fantasie’s harmonic sophistication and lyrical qualities evoke more of Stephen Sondheim’s sound world than Kapustin’s. One assumes that A Bu interprets his own music as he wishes it to go.

In his booklet notes, A Bu writes that Kapustin enjoyed his performance of the Variations Op. 41. Certainly the young pianist plays the scurrying final variation with impressive lightness and dexterity, but his square and rhythmically stiff execution elsewhere falls short of the composer’s own recorded performance, not to mention Marc-André Hamelin’s standard-setting reference version. The same holds true for the faster of the Concert Studies, of which only the final selection truly scintillates. By contrast, A Bu revels in the fifth study’s hard driving boogie-woogie patterns, while shaping No. 2’s shimmering broken chords and No. 5’s sweeping arpeggios sensitively.

In all, an arguably premature disc debut, yet there’s no questioning A Bu’s immense musical gifts, which I hope he will develop, refine, and deepen over time. He has the potential for greatness.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday

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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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A Bu (阿布; born 1999 in Beijing) is a Chinese jazz pianist and composer. He studied classical and jazz piano at the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing and the Juilliard School in New York under Hung-Kuan Chen. After standing in for a performer at the 2012 Nine Gates festival, he was scouted by Sennheiser, later releasing multiple albums with their record label. A Bu is currently pursuing his master’s degree in piano and composition at the Mannes School of Music in New York. He also gave the New York Premiere of Kapustin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Mannes Sounds Festival 2022-2023 Season.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bu

https://www.abujazz.com/

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