Nikolai Kapustin - Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40

Nikolai Kapustin (1937 - 2020) - Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 (1984) I. Prelude. Allegro Assai [0:00] II. Reverie. Moderato [2:08] III. Toccatina. Allegro [5:07] IV. Remembrance. Larghetto [7:22] V. Raillery. Vivace [11:21] VI. Pastorale. Allegro moderato [13:40] VII. Intermezzo. Allegretto [16:11] VIII. Final. Prestissimo [19:47] Nikolai Kapustin, piano (2000) “For stylistic breadth, formidable technical challenges, and audacious invention, the Eight Concert Études, Op. 40 (1984) more than hold their own with the genre’s celebrated benchmarks, from Liszt and Lyapunov to Godowsky’s retooled Chopin and Earl Wild’s Gershwin transformations. No. 1 (Allegro assai) tears out from the starting gate with a twelve-bar introduction that quickly transports us to the crowded streets of Rio de Janeiro at the height of Carnival season. Yet for all the music’s giddy groove and melodic uplift, its tempestuous, Chopinseque figurations never relent. Nor do the second Ét