Kapustin Schnittke

In recent years, the jazz-like, classical and modern music by the Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin (*1937) has become an inside tip on classical concert stages. During a visit to Nikolai Kasputin in Moscow ten years ago, the composer entrusted the cellist Eckart Runge with the notes for his Cello Concerto No. 1 op. 85, which, unlike the second one, had neither been performed nor recorded. The work vibrant with energy combines in unparalleled manner colorful symphonic music with the groovy sound of the big band tradition and the virtuosity of a Charlie Parker with the chamber music intimacy of a Miles Davis into a new and fulminant musical diction.