Kapustin Piano Concerto 4
Amatista Sheeley
"Juvenile concerto" is a peculiar expression used to describe the first concertos by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and others. This was to signify that these works were written at a very young age. Although Kapustin's age at the time of the composition of his first two piano concertos (1961, 1972) was hardly youthful, this epithet could be applied to them too, since the important thing is not the composer's physical age, but his level of inexperience. When he now looks through the score of the second concerto, the thought that invariably comes to his mind is "How could I write the piano part in such a clumsy way? And why is the harmonisation so straightforward, without any spark of ingenuity?" But when he listens to the recordings, his attitude becomes more tolerant, even favourable: the simple fact is that since that time the style of his music has become very different.
How did Kapustin decide to write another piano concerto (there are six of them now)? When he was still working in the big band led by Oleg Lundstrem, three themes occurred to him: the secondary theme of the first movement, the melody of the andante, and the rondo refrain (from the finale). In addition he was eager to try writing for strings for the first time, not just for big band as before. He realised his plan slightly later, when he was already working in the State Radio Orchestra and had both big band and string instruments at his disposal.
The concerto has three traditional movements: a sonata allegro, a three-part andante, and a rondo which sounds like a perpetuum mobile, although the solo part has many pauses (it can also be thought of as a toccata). The first and last parts of the andante have a peculiar metre: although it is the standard 8/8, the way these eight beats are subdivided is rather uncommon: 3-2-3.
Annamaria Giannelli asks: in this edition there are separate intrumental parts? If not where could I found them?
Sarah Rodgers answered:The orchestral set is available on rental.
Paul asks: Where can I find the full orchestral score for this concerto?
Sarah Rodgers answered:The full score and performing parts are only available to hire, not purchase. You will need to refer to the publisher.
As far as Frank Dupree's ongoing series on Capriccio is concerned, we met him previously on a disc which include the Fourth Piano Concerto. Here we move onto the Fifth, plus a Concerto for Two Pianos and a Sinfonietta for piano four hands, for which Dupree is joined by Adrian Grenoble.
The Fifth Piano Concerto is as individual as anything from Kapustin's pen. The product blurb mentions Oscar Peterson (the notes for Negishi's Enigma disc found Bill Evans in Kapustin's Sonata there), and from 3"50, one can certainly har the freedom and dexterity of a Peterson before the piano moves on swiftly to more piano concerto-like writing. Occasional hints - just hints - of Gershwin (the repeated chords around 4"50) add to the mix, but the whole is pure Kapustin, a riotous, heady mix. Good that I heard the Gershwin before I read Christian Heindl's notes, but see what you think!
It really takes a fine conductor as well as a fine pianist for this piece to succeed, and both are present and correct here: Dominik Beykirch, a name new to me, is superb. Beykirch heads the German National Theatre and the Staatskapelle Weimar and is in his early thirties. Kapustin's Fifth Concerto was written in 1993 and dedicated to the composer's friend (and great pianist) Nikolai Petrov (who premiered the piece with the Moscow Philharmonic under Vassily Sinaisky). Thepiece does appear free-flow, but there are climactic points: an almost cinematic melody around 8"50, for example. Dupree's finger work is sublime throughout, but nowhere more so than in the fleet final bars:
The finale smiles broadly, a Presto Rondo that chatters along infectiously. Milhaud returns, his Provenale sunshine transmuted into Kapusin's own compositional locale. This is a simply terrific performance: the two pianists seem in perfect alignment:
That must be intentional. Just take a look at those musicians squeezed into their uncomfortable formal attire, all with pinched, somber expressions on their faces. And then you look at the audience, and see the exact same thing.
The fear in the crowd is palpable. Those folks in the expensive seats look like soldiers in a fox hole, hoping to dodge bullets and praying for survival. They ought to give out medals for bravery to the hardy souls who return after the intermission.
There are so many fun and exciting works in the modern classical repertoire that never get performed. I have lots of them to recommend. (In a future article I plan to share a list of 50 living classical composers whose work you will enjoy hearing.)
Nikolai Kapustin (1937-2020) should have been a hotshot jazz pianist in New York\u2014but he had the bad luck to grow up in Horlivka, Ukraine under the domination of the Stalinist USSR. He developed into a fierce virtuoso and extravagant classical composer, but he also played jazzy music on the side in a restaurant. However Kapustin\u2019s approach to jazz was quirky\u2014probably because he learned in such an unlikely setting.
Yet this might have been a blessing, allowing him to create jazz-oriented classical works that sound unlike anything heard in the US. (Check out his etudes.) He deserves a prominent place in the classical repertoire, but instead gets treated as a peculiar footnote to 20th century music. If audiences were exposed to these flashy works, they would love them\u2014but when will they get the chance?
This is the most serene piano concerto you will ever hear. Let other composers write epic works inspired by emperors and wars\u2014Takashi Yoshimatsu looks instead to flowers for guidance. This is like a tranquil landscape transformed into soundscape.
There\u2019s a lot of energy directed now towards celebrating women composers\u2014so why don\u2019t we hear more music by Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990)? This Australian composer wrote bright, exciting works that grab the audience at the very first hearing. Her music deserves a revival\u2014it feels very contemporary. And you could make a movie from her life story. She was cross-dressing before it was fashionable, traveled the world and had love affairs and friendships with famous figures.
In her lifetime, she was known mostly as an opera composer, but nowadays even those works are rarely heard. Her piano music is bittersweet and heartfelt, but never shows up on the concert program. Keith Jarrett, who recorded Glanville-Hicks\u2019 Etruscan Concerto, has championed her work, but not many others have joined him.
To modern ears, the music sounds quaint, almost antiquated. The fourth piano concerto has the swing and swoon of 1930s ballroom dancing, while the concerto for violin and piano evokes the kind of respectable rhythms that went out of vogue the week the Rolling Stones were born. Listening to Kapustin in 2021 is an act of nostalgia, a gesture of defiance to the dictates of fashion. Writing against his own times, he somehow touches on our present discontents.
The commissars were not impressed. Though Kapustin obtained a few performances and publications, it was only in the 21st century that a western edition took an interest. When he died a year ago, he left 161 works in print, including six piano concertos and 20 sonatas.
Recorded earlier this month, the Philharmonia Orchestra and their Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali bring a tuneful and colourful programme to the Royal Festival Hall. It's bookended by two orchestral showpieces: Glinka's and Rimsky-Korsakov's impressions of Spain, a country which represented the far-away and exotic to 19th-century Russians.
Also on the bill, a work by Rimsky's contemporary and music's most famous research chemist, Alexander Borodin. Borodin's Symphony No. 2 embraces heroic grandeur and humour, and also a whiff of the exotic with its nod to Orientalism, another preoccupation for fashionable Russians then. Before it, comes the fifth piano concerto of Nikolai Kapustin. Frank Dupree, tireless champion of the Ukrainian-Soviet composer, is the soloist in this immediately likeable and exuberant music which fuses classical form with a dizzying, freewheeling 1940s US jazz aesthetic.
Trs beau programme pour violoncelle et orchestre (en concert le 21 novembre Paris, Salle Gaveau). Avec deux grands compositeurs, Nikola Kapustin et Astor Pazzolla, qui ont mari avec brio et sincrit les musiques populaires et la musique dite classique et contemporaine, la recherche d'une musicalit nouvelle.
Nikola Kapustin est n en 1937 en Ukraine. Elve de Alexandre Goldenweiser, l'un des fondateurs de l'cole du piano russe, au conservatoire de Moscou, il a t de 1961 1972 le pianiste jazz du big band de Oleg Lunstrem, avec lequel il a d'ailleurs enregistr quelques unes de ses propres pices.
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