Kapustin Concert Étude opens Gran Turismo 5
Watch the opening titles to Gran Turismo 5 Spec 2.0, released 18 October 2011.
The sound track is Toccatina, No 3 from 8 Concert Etudes Op. 40 by Nicolai Kapustin
The fantastically vibrant and powerful piano music which runs behind the opening is by the living Russian composer, Nikolai Kapustin and is being played by Shan-Shan Sun.
Get your copy of the Kapustin 8 Concert Etudes Op 40 including the piano music to GT 5 Spec 2.0 now
Listen to Shan-Shan Sun’s original performance of the Toccatina No 3 by Kapustin
The makers of Gran Turismo 5 understand the absolute exhilaration of live music when it connects to the rhythm of life and makes the heart race. That’s why they have chosen the Kapustin piano music to underscore the opening of the game.
Watch Nikolai Kapustin playing his own music
The Eight Concert Études opus 40 were written in 1984 and demonstrate Kapustin's compositional style at its broadest and most inventive. Each study presents the pianist with different, and often considerable, technical challenges (as of course befits the genre), in many, fascinating ways. The pieces tap into a whole range of musical languages - jazz, blues, ragtime, boogie-woogie, stride, cocktail-bar nonchalance - and are full of energy and excitement, even in the most disarmingly tuneful passages.
See a sample page of Kapustin’s Toccatina No 3 used for the sound track of Gran Turismo 5
The rhythm and drive of Kapustin’s music leaps off the page – cross-rythms, accents, chromatic colourisation, harmonic foundation and all naturally pianistic.
Kapustin’s music is a great way to introduce audiences to contemporary music, to jazz idioms and to living composers and now that Toccatina number 3 is included as the soundtrack to Gran Turismo 5 spec 2 it will be known and enjoyed everywhere.