Bagatelles No. 6 and No. 8, Op. 59 by Nikolai Kapustin

Nikolai Kapustin broadened the point of view of classical music and raised awareness of the significance of jazz amongst contemporary composers. Kapustin, a contemporary Russian composer, was not well-known outside of his country until his first recording was released. His status as a classical composer has been widely misunderstood and his works have been underperformed until recently. Since his musical style is a mixture of classical and jazz idioms, his identity as composer is unclear and it is hard to classify his compositional style. For this reason, the questions are often asked, ¿Is Nikolai Kapustin a classical composer or jazz composer? Is he a classical musician performing and writing in a jazz style? How does Kapustin see himself? This document will shed some light on Kapustin¿s stylistic traits by observing his keyboard compositions, specifically the bagatelles Nos. 6 and 8, Op. 59. Also, some performance guidelines are presented for pianists who seek a deeper understanding of jazz-influenced classical keyboard music.