Nikolai Kapustin

November marks the eighty-first anniversary of the birth of NIKOLAI KAPUSTIN – an emblematic figure in Russian art of piano performance, belonging to a group of composers known for their 'dissident' stance. Kapustin had the rare chance of commencing his piano training under Avrelian Rubakh (pupil of Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld), a figure who, by virtue of the historical moment, epitomized the prevalent attitudes of Russian intelligentsia and the eminent figures of Russian and world music. A student of Heinrich Neuhaus and Rimsky-Korsakov, Blumenfeld himself fostered a host of еleves, among them the elite of the Russian piano school – Vladimir Horowitz, Simon Barere, Natan Perelman, Maria Yudina and Maria Grinberg. At the Moscow Conservatoire, Kapustin studied in the class of Alexander Goldenweiser, graduating as his last student. Having evinced a keen interest in jazz already in his first composition – Concertino for Piano for Four Hands and Orchestra, in the fifties he landed into the legendary jazz-orchestra of Oleg Lundstrem. It was to him that Kapustin dedicated his second opus – his First Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, which he performed at the state exam at the Conservatoire. In 1972, he left the ensemble to join the cinematography orchestra. These decades were extremely productive, but Kapustin's compositions met with popularity only after the beginning of the nineties – his manuscripts were in print, recordings of his works were being released by labels such as: Olympia, Newt, Bohemian, Hyperion, Nippon; the likes of Nikolai Petrov, Marc-André Hamelin and Steven Osborne became his permanent performers.