Mergers

Russian-born pianist Nikolay Medvedev releases the aptly titled album "Fusions," which brings together the music of George Gershwin and Nikolai Kapustin—two such different pianists and composers whose works are nonetheless both marked by jazz—while simultaneously highlighting the virtuosity of Earl Wild, one of the greatest American pianists of the 20th century. George Gershwin, whose compositions encompassed jazz, pop, and classical music, hardly needs an introduction, but the unique fusion of jazz and classical forms by Nikolai Kapustin—who was born in the year of Gershwin's death, 1937—was limited to a niche audience in Russia until his music became internationally known in the early 2000s. These works, characterized by classical and jazz influences, are vividly interpreted by the award-winning pianist Nikolay Medvedev, whom BBC Music Magazine has described as 'a pianist of poise and precision,' while the Berliner Morgenpost described his performances as 'a fascinating combination of technical mastery and emotional depth.' What distinguishes Nikolai Kapustin as a composer is that, although his music naturally adopts jazz idioms, everything is carefully notated on the sheet music and not improvised like in traditional jazz. Had George Gershwin not tragically died at the age of 38, he might have completed his planned collection of "Twenty-Four Preludes" for solo piano. In fact, he wrote eight, and the first three preludes were published as a cycle in 1925. In 1932, Gershwin was persuaded to publish the "George Gershwin Song-Book" for solo piano, and in the 1950s, Earl Wild—described by music critic Harold C. Schonberg as a 'super-virtuoso of the Horowitz class'—released two collections of his own unique interpretations of Gershwin songs. His "7 Virtuoso Etudes after George Gershwin"—including "Fascinatin’ Rhythm" and the haunting "The Man I Love"—elevate Gershwin's inherent genius to an extraordinary level of concert standards.