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:
- Prelude in D-Flat Major (3:39)
- Prelude in F Minor (4:49)
- Prelude in F Minor (6:03)
- Prelude in C-Sharp Minor (3:26)
- Prelude in C Major (3:08)
- Caprice in A-Flat Major (3:05)
- Caprice No. 1 in E-Flat Major (1:42)
- Caprice No. 2 in C Major (3:08)
- Lullaby in A-Flat Major (2:51)
- Lullaby in F Major (2:25)
- Latvian Dance in G Major (3:23)
- Elegy in A-Flat Major (5:02)
- Sketch in F-Sharp Minor (3:14)
- Eddy in F-Sharp Minor (3:35)
- Rest in the Garden in F Major (4:36)
- In the Evening in F-Sharp Minor (1:27)
- Autumn Sketch in B Minor (2:23)
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Sonatine in B Major
- I. Moderato (1:18)
- II. Andante con moto (1:45)
- 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