etnobofin

Nikolai Kapustin – Scherzo: Allegro Assai from Sonata No.2 Op. 54
Performed by Marc-André Hamelin
From In A State of Jazz: Hyperion [Buy]

It happens almost every birthday – my aunt gives me a CD of music I’ve never heard of and I really really like it. This year it was a new album by Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin, playing solo piano music written by “classical” composers who were inspired by jazz.

The music on this album is remarkable because although it is all through-composed, it sounds very spontaneous and highly idiomatic. In Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin‘s Sonata No.2 there are passages that would fit easily into a Keith Jarrett solo performance or a 78rpm by Earl Hines.

This disc also contains six arrangements of Charles Trenet songs by the pianist Alexis Weissenberg, originally released as anonymous 45′s in 1950, and transcribed half a century later by Hamelin for this album. The arrangements catch the humour and bawdy double entendres of songs such as Vous oubliez votre cheval and Boum!… all delivered with a lightness of touch that few jazz players could achieve.

Finally, George Antheil‘s Jazz Sonata, clocking in at just 90 seconds sounds like Spike Jones and Stravinsky holding an orgy inside a Steinway – not only hilarious but a challenge for any virtuoso. Pure Joy.