Jānis Ķepītis: Complete Music for Solo Piano, Volume One
The Latvian composer Jānis Ķepītis (1908–89) has a fairly low profile even in his home country, never mind beyond its borders. His output was nonetheless substantial, with no fewer than six symphonies to his name, ten concertos, a number of large-scale choral-orchestral pieces, countless songs and choruses and a voluminous body of chamber music – almost all of it unknown. Ķepītis was himself a gifted pianist, and his hundred or so compositions for piano show a predilection for the miniature. The works here, discovered among his manuscripts, inhabit a world downstream from Skryabin and Rachmaninov, with a gentle hint of Debussy and an occasional wisp of Latvian folk-music.
Nora Lūse, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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- Prelude in D-Flat Major (3:39) Audio Player
- Prelude in F Minor (4:49) Audio Player
- Prelude in F Minor (6:03) Audio Player
- Prelude in C-Sharp Minor (3:26) Audio Player
- Prelude in C Major (3:08) Audio Player
- Caprice in A-Flat Major (3:05) Audio Player
- Caprice No. 1 in E-Flat Major (1:42) Audio Player
- Caprice No. 2 in C Major (3:08) Audio Player
- Lullaby in A-Flat Major (2:51) Audio Player
- Lullaby in F Major (2:25) Audio Player
- Latvian Dance in G Major (3:23)
- Elegy in A-Flat Major (5:02) Audio Player
- Sketch in F-Sharp Minor (3:14) Audio Player
- Eddy in F-Sharp Minor (3:35) Audio Player
- Rest in the Garden in F Major (4:36) Audio Player
- In the Evening in F-Sharp Minor (1:27) Audio Player
- Autumn Sketch in B Minor (2:23)
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Sonatine in B Major
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- I. Moderato (1:18) Audio Player
- II. Andante con moto (1:45) Audio Player
- III. Allegretto (1:07)
Charlottesville Classical :
‘there’s an honesty to these works that comes through time and again. These are simply well-crafted pieces written for the sheer joy of creation.
Nora Luse plays with sympathy and enthusiasm. These may be small pieces, but she takes them seriously. And in the process reveals some marvellous miniatures of beauty. I’m looking forward to the next instalment.’
—Ralph Graves, Charlottesville Classical