Nikolai Kapustin

Nikolai Kapustin
Kapustin in 2014
Born	Николай Гиршевич Капустин Nikolai Girshevich Kapustin (1937-11-22)22 November 1937 Horlivka, Ukrainian SSR, USSR
Died	2 July 2020(2020-07-02) (aged 82) Moscow, Russia
Resting place	Vostryakovo Cemetery
Citizenship	Soviet-born; Russian[1]
Education	Moscow Conservatory
Occupations	Pianist Composer
Works	List of compositions
Children	Anton Kapustin

Nikolai Girshevich Kapustin (Russian: Никола́й Ги́ршевич Капу́стин Russian pronunciation: [kɐˈpustʲɪn]; 22 November 1937 – 2 July 2020) was a Soviet-born, Russian^[1] composer and pianist. He trained at the Moscow Conservatory under Alexander Goldenweiser before embarking on a career as a jazz pianist and arranger, playing with early Soviet jazz bands such as the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra.

In the 1980s, Kapustin transitioned to full-time composition. His musical output includes 161 opus numbers, mainly in a hybrid style combining the rhythmic and harmonic language of jazz with traditional Western classical structures. Despite his music frequently sounding indistinguishable from spontaneous jazz improvisation, Kapustin was meticulous in writing out every note. He historically denied the role of actual improvisation in his compositions and saw himself exclusively as a classical musician.

Kapustin was born in Nikitovka, a suburb of Horlivka, Ukraine,^[2][3] then part of the Soviet Union. His parents, Grigory Efimovich Kapustin (born 1901) and Klavdia Nikolaevna Kapustina (née Kozmina), were not musicians themselves—his father worked in a meat factory and his mother was a typist—but they dreamed of their children becoming musicians and strongly supported their education.^[4][5] His mother was of Russian descent,^[6] and his father was Jewish.^[6] At the beginning of World War II, when Kapustin was four years old, his father left for the front. Kapustin, his mother, his grandmother, and his ten-year-old sister, Fira, evacuated to the Kyrgyz city of Tokmak.^[7][5][4]

Kapustin bypassed the traditional Russian music school system, beginning private piano lessons at age seven with Piotr Ivanovich Vinnichenko, originally his sister's violin teacher. Under Vinnichenko, he studied works such as Clementi sonatinas.^[4] He later studied with Lubov' Frantsuzova (a student of Samuel Maykapar) to prepare for the Academic Moscow College.^[4] Demonstrating a precocious urge to create, he composed his first piano sonata at age 13 in a traditional academic style, though he never formally studied composition as a specific subject, preferring to develop his skills through rigorous self-tuition.^[3][8]

At age 14, Kapustin moved to Moscow to take the college's entrance exam, gaining acceptance into the class of Avrelian Rubakh.^[4] Rubakh, whom Kapustin later credited with truly teaching him how to play the piano, was a pupil of Felix Blumenfeld (who also taught Simon Barere and Vladimir Horowitz).^[7] During his college years (1954–1955), the impoverished student lived in the home of Sergei Mikhalkov (father of Kapustin's friend and future film director Andrei Konchalovsky). There, he was exposed to American jazz—an interest his teacher supported—by clandestinely listening to Voice of America broadcasts late at night. Hearing the music of Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Nat King Cole left a profound mark on him.^[4] The discovery of the virtuosic playing of Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson around this time deeply influenced Kapustin's musical trajectory, prompting him to dedicate himself to mastering jazz idioms.^[9]

Kapustin studied from 1956 with Alexander Goldenweiser at the Moscow Conservatory. During his audition, his performance of Liszt's immensely difficult Réminiscences de Don Juan prompted Goldenweiser to ask Rubakh, "Where did you find such a pianist?"^[4] Goldenweiser, who was 81 years old when Kapustin joined his class, shared personal memories of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Nikolai Medtner with the young student.^[8] Early in his conservatory years, Kapustin suffered an injury to his right hand, though he ultimately overcame the setback to continue his rigorous training.^[10] Kapustin graduated in 1961,^[11] performing Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2, having previously included Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 in his college graduation recital.^[7][4]

During the 1950s, Kapustin became known as a jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. He formed a jazz quintet that performed monthly at the upscale "National" restaurant in Moscow. One of these performances was recorded by visiting Americans and subsequently broadcast on Voice of America, marking the first time his name reached the United States.^[7][4] His first publicly performed piece, the Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 1, was premiered by Kapustin with Yury Saulsky's big band at the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow in July 1957.^[4]

After graduating in 1961, Kapustin joined the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra, touring throughout the Soviet Union and abroad until 1972. He considered this 11-year period his "Second Conservatory" due to the practical experience he gained in arranging and playing classical jazz in the style of Count Basie.^[2][4] He composed his Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 2 specifically for the band, though its length and complexity meant it was rarely performed.^[8][3] Another notable work from this era was his Toccata, Op. 8, a technically demanding piece featuring complex written-out swing rhythms, which was recorded by Soviet television in 1964.^[9][4]

Seeking a lifestyle with less touring after marrying and starting a family, Kapustin joined the Boris Karamishev "Blue Screen" Orchestra in 1972, serving as a pianist for live television and radio broadcasts and participating in studio recordings. Unlike Lundstrem's band, Karamyshev's ensemble also included a string section, which allowed Kapustin to further expand his orchestrational palette. Following the dissolution of the ensemble in 1977, he joined the State Symphonic Orchestra of Cinematography, working under conductors such as Georgy Garanyan, Yuri Serebryakov, and Konstantin Krimetz to record film scores until 1984.^[3][4]

During his tenure with the Cinematography Orchestra, the successful premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 14 led to his official acceptance into the Union of Soviet Composers in 1980, which equated to formal state recognition of his work.^[3][10] Kapustin noted that he faced no censorship from Soviet authorities; his music was not considered avant-garde, and the state regularly purchased his scores for performance and publication.^[8][9] Before the era of perestroika, he also recorded four vinyl LPs of his own music for the state label Melodiya.^[8]

Following a 1980 performance of his Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Kapustin largely withdrew from public performance. In interviews, he expressed a profound discomfort with playing in front of live audiences, revealing that stage fright and the pressures of concertizing drained him. By 1984, he resigned from the Orchestra of Cinematography to become a full-time, freelance composer.^[10] His first officially published piece was the "Toccatina", Op. 36, printed by a Moscow publisher in 1983. The 1980s marked a shift toward solo piano works, and he began his cycle of piano sonatas in 1984.^[4]

Operating as a freelance composer ushered in an era of heightened productivity. He spent his summers composing at his beloved dacha, away from the noise of the city.^[12] While Kapustin composed 25 works during the 1980s, his output nearly doubled in the 1990s, yielding 43 new compositions.^[13] During this period, he also began embarking on rare travels outside of Russia, including his first musical tour to Germany.^[10]

Kapustin possessed a strong dislike for air travel. When he visited London in May 2000 for the formation of the "Kapustin Piano Society" and to attend the Western premiere of his Piano Sonata No. 2 by Marc-André Hamelin, he undertook a gruelling three-day train journey across Europe to get there.^[8] In appreciation, he composed and dedicated his Piano Sonata No. 11, Op. 101 ("Twickenham") to the city.^[4] His 70th birthday was celebrated with a dedicated concert of his chamber music at Gnesina College in Moscow in 2007, and similar tribute concerts followed in Moscow in 2009 and 2011.^[4]

Kapustin was famous among those who knew him for his intense privacy, modesty, and complete disinterest in fame. A heavy smoker rarely seen without a cigarette, he preferred the solitude of his Moscow apartment and his compositional routines over the bustling life of a touring virtuoso. Despite his music being inherently ebullient, virtuosic, and outgoing, his personal demeanor was exceptionally quiet and reserved.

As his international popularity skyrocketed in the 21st century—fueled by internet exposure and championing by world-renowned pianists—Kapustin politely but firmly declined countless invitations to perform abroad, give masterclasses, or participate in promotional tours. He viewed himself solely as a composer who played the piano out of necessity to record his own works, rather than a performer seeking the spotlight.

Kapustin's musical style is uniquely noted for flawlessly blending the rhythmic and harmonic language of jazz with traditional classical structures.^[14][15][16] He took a jazz approach to harmony (utilizing complex extended voicings, syncopations, and walking bass lines) and fitted it strictly into classical forms like sonatas, preludes, and fugues.

Despite his works sounding exactly like spontaneous jazz improvisations, the most striking paradox of Kapustin's music is his complete rejection of actual improvisation. Every single note, articulation, and dynamic is meticulously written out. He stated: "I was never a jazz musician. I never tried to be a real jazz pianist, but I had to do it because of the composing. I'm not interested in improvisation – and what is a jazz musician without improvisation? All my improvisations are written, of course, and they became much better; it improved them."^[17] This approach essentially "froze" the ephemeral nature of jazz improvisation onto the page, allowing classically trained musicians without jazz backgrounds to perform his works.

His jazz influences are heavily rooted in the American traditions, particularly drawing inspiration from the virtuosic languages of Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, and Herbie Hancock.^[13] Concurrently, his rigorous classical background shines through his affinity for the classical styles of Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Frédéric Chopin, Maurice Ravel, and Béla Bartók.^[13]

Following in the tradition of Russian pianist-composers like Medtner and Rachmaninoff, the piano remained the lynchpin of Kapustin's output. However, he uniquely treated the big band ensemble as a vehicle worthy of serious classical composition.^[5] Among his works is the Suite in the Old Style, Op. 28 (1977), which employs jazz idioms but is modeled after Baroque suites such as Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard partitas.

A significant portion of Kapustin's compositional output comprises his 20 piano sonatas, composed between 1984 and 2011.^[18][13] His sonatas vary greatly in formal organization. They range from extensive single-movement works like the Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 55 (1990)—which encapsulates nearly every aspect of Kapustin's compositional style—to multi-movement structures such as the Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 62 (1991). Though they fundamentally adhere to classical frameworks (such as sonata form), their intricate jazz voicings have cemented them as highly challenging staples of the modern virtuosic piano repertoire.^[18]

His six piano concertos represent different structural approaches; for instance, Concertos No. 3, 4, and 5 are cast in continuous single movements and are scored for piano and string orchestra.^[8] From the late 1990s onward, Kapustin expanded his fusion style into established non-piano forms, composing a Cello Concerto (1997), a String Quartet (1998), a Flute Sonata, and a Violin Concerto (2009).^[9][5] He also wrote a Paraphrase on Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca" for two pianos.^[9]

His catalog consists of 161 opus numbers. Notable cornerstones of his output include the Eight Concert Études, Op. 40 (1984); the 24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53 (1989); the 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 82 (1997); and the Sonatina, Op. 100.^[19][2] Both of his cycles of 24 preludes traverse all 24 major and minor keys, a structural tradition famously employed by classical composers such as Bach (The Well-Tempered Clavier), Chopin (Préludes, Op. 28), Scriabin (24 Preludes, Op. 11), and Dmitri Shostakovich (24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87). Works such as Op. 40 and Op. 53 showcase Kapustin's unique compositional technique of deconstructing classical patterns and thoroughly infusing them with blues inflections and jazz harmonies.^[20]

Prior to the year 2000, Kapustin's music was largely a secret among musicians in the former Soviet Union.^[3] The advent of the internet and social media later helped popularize his music globally, particularly among a younger demographic of musicians.^[12][3] His music experienced a rapid increase in international recognition aided by advocacy and recordings from pianists such as Marc-André Hamelin and Steven Osborne on the UK-based label Hyperion Records.^[1][12]

Record labels have also released several recordings of the composer performing his own music, particularly a series of solo albums produced by the Japanese label Triton between 1984 and 2007 (often titled "Kapustin Plays Kapustin").^[19][4] Today, his music is frequently programmed internationally. The Toccatina from his Op. 40 études has been notably performed by Benjamin Grosvenor at the BBC Proms and by Lauren Zhang during her winning performance at the BBC Young Musician competition.^[12] His works are played by leading pianists including Yuja Wang, Ludmil Angelov, Frank Dupree, Masahiro Kawakami, Thomas Ang,^[21] Nikolai Petrov, Yeol Eum Son, Alexei Volodin, Daniel del Pino, Konstantin Semilakovs, Elisaveta Blumina, Nobuyuki Tsujii, and John Salmon, as well as by chamber ensembles such as the Ahn Trio, Trio Arbós, Artemis Quartet, and the New Russian Quartet.^[2][4]

Kapustin met his wife, Alla Semenovna Baranovskaya (1945–2020), while touring in Novokuznetsk with the Lundstrem band. They married in 1969 and had two sons: Anton Kapustin (born 1971), a theoretical physicist noted for his work in string theory at the Caltech,^[22][5] and Pavel (born 1978), an economist.^[4]

His older sister, Fira Kapustina (born 1931), fulfilled their parents' scientific and artistic aspirations in a different field; she became a chemist, earning her Candidate of Chemical Sciences degree in 1970, and holds patents for inventions in the field of printing inks.

Kapustin died on 2 July 2020 in Moscow.^[23] He was 82 years old.^[1] He was buried at the Vostryakovo Cemetery in Moscow.

• Schott Music, the official publisher of music of Nikolai Kapustin
• Literature by and about Nikolai Kapustin in the German National Library catalogue
• Nikolai Kapustin discography at Discogs
• Onno van Rijen: Nikolai Kapustin, Internet edition July 2014 (archived)
• Sheet music by composer: Nikolai Kapustin tutti.co.uk
• Nikolai Kapustin - Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 on YouTube