Nikolai Kapustin with the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra
The composition of this concerto in 1961 was the reason Kapustin was admitted to the Union of Soviet Composers; later, in 1980, he even performed it in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. 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.This second concerto is not at all challenging from a technical viewpoint, but when one listens to it, it seems incredibly hard. Kapustin recorded it for the Soviet Radio Archive.
Ludmil Angelov with the Spanish Chamber Orchestra
This one-movement concerto was composed in 1990. Structurally, it very much resembles a violin concerto by Alexander Glazounov. The similarity is that a slow lyrical episode is wedged between the exposition and the development, after which the recapitulation and the soloist's cadenza follow. But then, instead of the expected coda, there is a large concluding section (both in this concerto and in Glazounov's) which is perceived as a finale. As soon as Kapustin finished composing the concerto, he learned to play it for performance, but because of the well-known situation in Russia the early 90's he was not able either to perform or to record it.
2 pianos and 2 percussion players
Kapustin's Concerto for 2 Pianos and Percussion, op 104, was written in 2002. From the opening movement this piece swings, especially with the presence of the drums, and presents a great variety of jazz moods in an intensely personal chamber composition.
2 pianos
Despite the Latin American character of this piece one mustn't forget that Dizzy Gillespie was a jazz musician and, besides, one of the founders of be-bop style together with Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk. So the theme - and the subsequent improvisations even more so - are in swing style, though maybe not as pushy or energetic as, for example, Count Basie. Following a big introduction, the theme appears in simple ternary form followed by an expanded set of variations on the main theme. There is then a reprise and a coda.
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