Marc-André Hamelin IN A STATE OF JAZZ

                                                               IN A STATE OF JAZZ

Roman Rofalski THE KAPUSTIN PROJECT

Roman Rofalski is considered to be of the few pianists who have the ability to express both in classical music and improvised Jazz with outstanding technique and musicianship. In addition, his compositions merge these two worlds creating a new and unique conception of composed and improvised music.
He received both bachelor and masters degrees from the renown University for Music and Drama Hannover (Germany). In the summer of 2007, he was accepted for the artist diploma class and studied under the guidance of Prof Christpher Oakden. While studying he also received valued direction from Prof. Bernd Goetzke (HMT Hannover), Prof Matti Raekallio (Juilliard School, NY) and Prof. Claudius Tanski (Mozarteum Salzburg, Austria).

Yuja Wang THE BERLIN RECITAL ENCORES

Yuja Wang is one of those exceedingly rare pianists to have become a major international presence by her 21st birthday. Having performed by then with such orchestras as the New York, St. Petersburg, and China philharmonics, and the Chicago, San Francisco, and Houston symphony orchestras, she transitioned almost overnight from an unknown but hugely talented teenager to arguably the most famous Chinese-born female pianist. And with a multi-disc recording contract with DG and a schedule of more than 100 concerts yearly, she is one of the busiest on the globe, as well. While she has had success in competitions, Wang owes her sudden fame mostly to her role as a fill-in for superstar pianists who cancel on short notice. Most famously, Wang substituted for Martha Argerich in the Tchaikovsky First with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in March 2007. The reviewers were ecstatic in their praise for her performance. The following year she substituted for Murray Perahia on a concert tour that garnered lavish critical acclaim from Boston to San Francisco. Wang's repertory is broad and quite eclectic, taking in works by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and others.

Marc-André Hamelin NIKOLAI KAPUSTIN Piano Music, Vol. 2

Here is a disc to set the pulse racing. Nikolai Kapustin is a Russian composer who writes jazz piano music teeming with energetic spontaneity and bristling with the kind of creative immediacy one associates with improvisation (although the music is fully and meticulously written out). Kapustin is already known to the Hyperion catalogue through Steven Osborne’s trail-blazing recording of the first two Piano Sonatas and the Preludes in Jazz Style, and Marc-André Hamelin is another pianist who has for years played his music in concert. Hamelin’s legendary technical prowess and his exceptional affinity with jazz fuse to create one of the most sparkling, infectiously foot-tapping piano discs you could wish to hear.

In a recital spanning various traditional instrumental genres, Marc-André Hamelin includes two sets of studies. In terms of their stylistic breadth, formidable technical challenges and audacious invention, the Eight Concert Études (1984) hold their own against the celebrated benchmarks in the genre, from Liszt and Lyapunov to Godowsky’s re-worked Chopin. The Five Études in Different Intervals (1992) begins with a madcap study in minor seconds recalling the bouncy demeanor of Zez Confrey’s Kitten on the Keys (although here someone has dosed poor kitty with Grade A Catnip!), and ends with an octave study to end all octave studies. Throughout, Kapustin’s bottomless well of thematic resoursefulness works overtime.

A disc to dazzle your friends with – and play “guess the composer!“

Steven Osborne NIKOLAI KAPUSTIN Piano Music

Here is an exhilarating disc that will get your feet tapping! Nikolai Kapustin (born 1937) studied the piano at the Moscow Conservatoire with Alexander Goldenweiser, and is a prolific composer, especially for his own instrument. His style is a fascinating and distinctive blend of classical and jazz styles, as he expounds his jazz-based melodic and rhythmic ideas within the structures of classical sonata form. The jazz influence is of course nothing new: many composers, including Ravel and Poulenc, have incorporated jazz elements in their work, but whereas their music makes occasional and relatively superficial reference to jazz, Kapustin's is unthinkable without it.

The first two piano sonatas (he has so far written ten) both date from 1989, and display a deep merging of disparate stylistic elements tempered by a careful control of structure. The hallmarks of Kapustin's style are evident throughout: the scintillating virtuosity and jazz-influenced syncopations, with the occasional walking bass and doses of swing, boogie-woogie, and the raw energy of Art Tatum. The Preludes also present a great variety of jazz styles, including blues, ballad, jazz waltz, swing and a hint of jazz funk.

Steven Osborne is one of the most exciting young British pianists, and the jazz idiom is wholly natural to him. Having discovered this wonderful music, he has managed to get hold of many rare scores and manuscripts from Russia (some from the composer himself) in order to make this recording. The result is a revelation, and one you'll undoubtedly want to play to your friends. (Hyperion)

'Engaging, often witty, jazz-inspired works that are highly recommended, especially to lovers of Gershwin or Billy Mayerl' (Gramophone)

Clare Hammond ETUDE Chin - Kapustin - Lyapunov - Szymanowski

The six études by the South-Korean composer, Unsuk Chin, form the centrepiece of this disc. Some of the most significant pieces to be written for the piano in recent years, these are natural successors to the piano études by György Ligeti and are already of international prominence. With their scintillating textures and inventive use of timbre, they are entirely absorbing and electrifying works which are rapidly becoming a keystone of the piano repertoire.

These have been combined with a variety of études from either end of the twentieth century. The three by Lyapunov are very much in a late-Romantic, Lisztian mould with descriptive titles and compelling narratives.The first, ‘Terek’, is named after a river which flows from Georgia into Russia and is prefaced with a dramatic poem by the Russian poet Lermontov. ‘Nuit d’été’ is more contemplative and is followed by the impassioned and explosive ‘Tempête’.

Szymanowski’s Op. 33 were written less than 20 years after Lyapunov’s yet they inhabit an entirely different sound-world. With mercurial timbres and fleet textures, they are similar to Debussy’s études, written in the same year. The programme ends with 5 Studies in Different Intervals by Nikolai Kapustin. Each study is structured around a specific interval yet, despite this rather rigid concept, they are in a free- formed jazzy style and provide an exuberant finale to the disc. 

Acclaimed by The Daily Telegraph as a pianist of “amazing power and panache” , Clare Hammond gave debut recitals at the City of London, Cheltenham and Presteigne Festivals, and made return visits to the Wigmore and Bridgewater Halls in 2013. The Guardian wrote of her performance of Ken Hesketh’s Horae at Cheltenham that she “displayed its scintillating passagework and poetic calm with great flair” . A passionate advocate of twentieth and twenty-first century music, Clare combines a formidable technique and virtuosic flair onstage with stylistic integrity and attention to detail. 

Clare’s first disc for BIS, Reflections , of the piano music of Andrzej and Roxanna Panufnik, was featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘CD Review’ and her performance described as“commandingly virtuosic” in BBC Music Magazine. International Piano Magazine recommended the disc as a “fascinating compendium, expertly executed” and it was awarded 5 stars in Diapason who stated that “Hammond excels at instilling each piece with an atmosphere” . Highlights in 2014 include 3 BBC radio broadcasts, debut performances at 7 festivals across Europe, including the ‘Chopin and his Europe’ Festival in Warsaw, the world premieres of works by 10 composers, and a Panufnik Centenary tour of Poland under the aegis of the British Council’s ‘Artists’ International Development Fund’.