Todd A
pfm Member
[This will be cross-posted in The Asian Invasion]
My first-ever exposure to the music of Nikolai Kapustin. To be sure, I bought the disc because I was interested in hearing Sun Hee You play, and the disc was a four buck "Add On" at Amazon, but new music is something of a bonus. (I'm finding "Add Ons" to be useful and fun.)
Ms You was born in Seoul, did the wunderkind thing in her home country, attended the Yewon School, and ended up moving to Italy and earning a diploma from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia and working with Lazar and Valentina Berman, among others. Her bio cites a variety of collaborations with C-list artists and orchestras, but sometimes regional artists are as good as more famous artists.
Kapustin is an honest to goodness living Ukrainian composer, and one heavily influenced by jazz. Indeed, he was apparently known as jazz pianist and composer in the 50s. This disc contains works penned in the 80s and 90s that betray that jazz influence.
The First Sonata definitely sounds sort of jazzy, in a Dave Brubeck meets Oscar Peterson meets Gershwin meets Debussy meets (early) Scriabin sort of way. Much of the music sort of sounds like what might happen if a talented jazz pianist were hired to play piano at an upscale clothing store and decided to go off-program near closing time on a busy Saturday night. It's improvisatory-ish and not easy listening, but it could still fade into the background if the pianist didn't play too loudly. It's certainly not bad and makes for light entertainment, but I can't see listening to this very often. The four Etudes and Bagatelles that follow are more syncopated than the sonata and given their brevity make for a more compelling experience. The Seventh Sonata sounds like a jazzed up mix of Prokofiev and subdued post-war avant-garde writing, in a generic sense. There's ample virtuoso writing in faster passages of the opening Allegretto, and the Adagio amoroso, possessed of a slow overall pulse, is stuffed with notes that fall not always beautifully on the ear. That's perfectly alright, but I'm not sold on the amoroso bit. Nor am I sold on the almost jazz-infused Boulez-meets-Schulhoff march that is the Minuetto being a Minuetto, though it sounds intriguing. The concluding Allegro vivace is even more vibrant and intense than the opening movement. This more abstract work is the best thing on the disc. The concluding Variations take as their theme part of the opening of The Rite of Spring. The music subjects the original to syncopated, vibrant, and colorful treatment, and it makes for an enjoyable enough listening experience.
Ms You most certainly possesses the technical equipment to play the music on offer here, and I would wager a whole lot besides. Her recordings to date have focused on lesser-known composers and works, which is one way to make a name in a crowded marketplace, but I'd like to hear her in more standard rep, even if it is lesser works by greater composers. Of course, I'd prefer to hear her take on more substantive fare even more. The Chopin Etudes, say, or maybe some late Scriabin.
Superb sound.
Amazon UK link
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