🇺🇦Nikolai Kapustin ： Paraphrase Op.108

Kapustin’s Paraphrase Op.108 treats Duvoilin’s theme for solo piano. Taking the outline of the theme as its starting point, it develops the music through syncopation suggestive of jazz idioms, sharply defined accents, and rich harmonies. A key attraction is the contrast between passages in which the theme emerges and those in which it is transformed into intricate motion and brilliant passagework. The piece calls for both an improvisatory sense of momentum and a high level of virtuosity. In performance, the complex rhythms should remain precise while the melody is brought clearly to the foreground from the inner voices and accompaniment. Rather than overemphasizing the accents, performers should balance light forward motion with flexible phrasing to bring out the work’s character.