Search - Friedrich Gulda, Nikolai Kapustin, Alexis Weissenberg :: In a State of Jazz

Amazing Music, Amazing Performance

Dr. Debra Jan Bibel | Oakland, CA USA | 12/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Shades of Art Tatum! Marc-André Hamelin must have incredible virtuosic hands and a quick brain to have performed such demanding works. Modern classical composers have been influenced by jagged jazz tempos and structures...we quickly think of Gershwin, Stravinsky, Ravel, Milhaud, and Bernstein, and jazz musicians have an unusually high regard for classical music. Composer Friedrich Gulda is featured here, and like Andre Previn, has feet in both realms. His exercises or etudes helped him to get away from the rigidity of classical forms. Nikolai Kaspustin's Sonata No. 2, of 1989 vintage is a marvel from Russia. The liner notes provides a long statement by Alexis Weissenberg about the development of his highly complex Sonate en état de jazz. The concluding brief piece by George Antheil is full of wit, nonsense, and joy. As Weissenberg observes, a state of jazz is not a normal state but a drunkenness of the soul operating within a cubist logic. If you love both jazz and classical music, you will especially dig this album. If jazz is terra incognita, buy it anyway and enjoy the splendor!"

In A State of Jazz

Gawaine Dart | 06/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First heard on Canadian radio, I was lucky to find it at AMazon. (where else?) As a long time listener to what is erroniously called "classical" music, I have found the clarity of expression in this CD amazing. Mr. Hamelin's renditions are a marvel of dexterity, and the Kapustin Sonata No 2 is so full of ear worms that I don't know whether to be angry or hopelessly in love. On a scale of five stars, 17!"

Hamelin: Jazz

George M. Tenegal | Chicago, Illinois | 06/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Marc-Andre Hamelin's jazz CD is fabulous! I was totally unfamiliar with the works on this CD and, as usual, Hamelin never ceases to amaze me both in his facility, but also his superb interpretations! I can't even imagine these works played better."