Nikolai Kapustin - Piano Concerto No. 4; etc. (Frank Dupree)

Information

Composer: Nikolai Kapustin

• Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 56
• Concerto for Violin & Piano, Op. 105
• Chamber Symphony, Op. 57

Frank Dupree, piano & conductor (Op. 57)

Rosanne Philippens, violin

Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn

Case Scaglione, conductor (Op. 56 & Op. 105)

Date: 2021

Label: Capriccio

http://capriccio.at/nikolai-kapustin

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Review

Nikolai Kapustin died in July last year at the age of 83 (his wife died on the day of his funeral). Except perhaps for the last two decades, international acclaim eluded him. He seemed content with his lot, happy to compose without, apparently, much caring whether his music was heard or not. Five highly respected music reference books I have (admittedly 10 years old) omit him, jumping from Kapellmeister to Karajan.

Though familiar with some of his piano music (Kapustin’s own instrument), I confess I did not know he had written a piano concerto, let alone six of them. The fourth of them is a riot. If it was played at the BBC Proms in the right hands, it would bring the house down. The right hands are certainly present on this recording. Frank Dupree is a hugely gifted young (b1991) German pianist and conductor. A classically trained pianist, percussionist and jazz player, on this evidence we shall be hearing a lot more of him in the future. The Fourth Concerto is like a carefully notated extended improvisation by the great Peter Nero (still with us at 87) and Oscar Peterson (an important influence on Kapustin), fully orchestrated by Ravel and Henry Mancini with further input from Art Tatum, Count Basie and Bill Evans. It is a three-movements-in-one work, Dupree flying around the keyboard with unrestrained brilliance, aided by the notable contribution of the jazz drummer Meinhard ‘Obie’ Jenne.

The Concerto for violin and piano is only slightly less appealing, with fine work from Rosanne Philippens seamlessly alternating between Prokofiev and Stéphane Grappelli. A lively dialogue between her and Dupree takes in pastiche blues and boogie-woogie in the first movement. The slow movement is not brimming over with memorable ideas and one is aware of some reedy string tone. The finale is simply terrific, a kaleidoscope of highly syncopated rhythms incorporating the Charleston, ragtime and Broadway, and a brilliant section that put me in mind of the Scherzo from Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety. The young American conductor Case Scaglione holds the whole flimsy structure together with aplomb.

It is Dupree who takes over the baton for the three-movement Chamber Symphony (1990), though that doesn’t stop him also playing the vibraphone part. He makes an impressive job of delineating this mercurial work with its cross-rhythms, abundant stylistic references (Latino, neoclassical, Hollywood, Stan Kenton, you name it). As the excellent booklet confirms, compared to the other two compositions in this selection, the symphony is a somewhat more severe three-movement work and does not centre on the piano or feature the same faux-improvisatory character.

It’s the piano concerto that makes the strongest impression here. It’ll knock your socks off.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Nov/Kapustin-concs-C5437.htm

https://thecritic.co.uk/nikolai-kapustin-4th-piano-concerto-capriccio/

https://limelight-arts.com.au/reviews/kapustin-piano-concerto-no-4-concerto-for-violin-piano-chamber-symphony-frank-dupree-wurttemberg-chamber-orchestra/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/nikolai-kapustin-piano-concerto-no-4-double-concerto-chamber-symphony-mw0003550681

https://www.amazon.com/Orchestral-Works-Nikolai-Kapustin/dp/B096ZRD738

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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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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/

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