KAPUSTIN, N.: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 6 / Concert Rhapsody / Toccata / Variations
Dupree, SWR Big Band and Symphony, Jenne, Krupp, Beykirch
C5528

“As soon as I started playing jazz, I understood it was something for me. I understood that I had to combine the two musics.” These were the words of composer Nikolai Kapustin, born in Ukraine in 1937 and a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, the “two musics” being classical and jazz. From Kapustin’s pen came an impeccable fusion of the two genres, with no trace of shallow crossover. Raymond Bisha introduces the programme on a recent recording that includes Kapustin’s Second and Sixth Piano Concertos, with soloist Frank Dupree accompanied variously by the SWR Big Band and the SWR Symphony Orchestra.