NIKOLAI KAPUSTIN (1937–2020) : Piano Concerto No. 5, Concerto for 2 Pianos and Percussion, Sinfonietta. Frank Dupree, piano; Adrian Brendle, piano; Meinhard 'Obi' Jenne, Drumset; Franz Bach, Percussion; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Dominik Beykirch, conductor.

Description: When the music of Nikolai Kapustin was discovered by a wider audience in the West, it was positively shocking: Who was this Soviet (!) composer, whose music sounded more like an Oscar Peterson improvisation than anything else – but who wrote detailed scores, black with notes?! As we discover more and more of his music (and there’s so much more yet to discover!), a very distinct, always wholly charming voice emerges, whether in a freewheeling outright-jazzy work like his Concerto for 2 Pianos and Percussion, the more symphonic Fifth Piano Concerto, or the frisky Sinfonietta which transports us into a smoky 1940s bar in Manhattan.