🇺🇦Nikolai Kapustin ： Piano Concerto No.4 Op.56

Kapustin’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 56, combines the writing of a classical concerto with jazz-derived rhythmic vitality, sophisticated harmony, and an improvisatory sense of momentum. Throughout the work, the solo piano and orchestra advance the music through dialogue, while the piano part demands brilliant passagework and strong propulsion. Highlights include the contrast between moments when the soloist comes to the fore and those in which it blends with the ensemble, as well as the incisiveness of the rhythms and the changing colors of the sound. In performance, it is important to maintain complex rhythms precisely without becoming mechanical, and to make the accents and direction of each phrase clear. Beyond the fast passages, careful attention to tone color and timing, together with an awareness of the exchanges with the orchestra, brings out the work’s lightness and tension more fully.