3 Concert Studies from Op.40 (1984)

No.6 Pastorale

No.7 Intermezzo

No.3 Toccatina

Nikolay Kapustin’s dazzling fusion of jazz idioms with classical form and virtuoso keyboard writing have made him a cult figure especially with the younger generation of pianists. Unlikely though it is that such a figure should emerge from an education and formative professional experience in Soviet Russia, he must be counted as one of the most successful of    all “third stream” composers. The appeal of his music is not only its securely poised stylistic balance but also its extraordinary, sometimes even manic energy. It is nowhere near as complex or as mechanically driven as that of Conlon Nancarrow – Kapustin doesn’t have recourse to the player-piano – but the American composer sometimes comes to mind as a comparison, not least perhaps because of a mutual admiration for, foremost among other jazz pianists, Art Tatum. Oscar Peterson is another major influence.

As their titles suggest, the first two of the Concert Studies chosen for today’s programme are not the most sensational in the set, exhilarating though they are. Pastorale has a ragtime vitality about it but, as its three-note banjo tune goes through its melodic and rhythmic variations, it is just as likely to ease itself into Broadway mode as it is to be pressed into harmonic exuberance and extravagant keyboard elaboration. Intermezzo is a relaxed Art Tatum inspiration – or so it seems until it proliferates in texture, accelerates in activity and develops into a challenging technical study in the classical sense without losing its stylistic integrity. Toccatina, on the other hand, is explosive from the start. Impelled throughout by ostinato rhythms so compulsive that they seem to leave no scope for anything else, it does in fact, while the left hand, rumbles on, release brilliant sparks of romantic melody in the right. While, as a diminutive of its kind, Toccatina is less ambitious in scale than the toccatas of, say, Schumann and Prokofiev, the comparison is by no means inappropriate.