Contrastes

This recording traces the heritage of Romanticism in postmodern times. It's vintage opener is the first Cello Sonata by Brahms, a pinnacle of unspeakable but mind-controlled beauty. Martinu's second Cello Sonata, written in American exile in 1941, revisits Brahms's old world, but with wider tonality, more expressive shifts, and the extra rhythmic pulse of Czech folk music. In Schnittke's Cello Sonata of 1978, which builds on Shostakovich's emaciated style, the ghosts of the desolate closing Largo usher in the death throes of Romanticism. This is a captivating album that draws it's fascination not from the uniformity of the pieces included, but from their distinct differences. Born in Poland, Kacper Nowak began playing the cello at the age of eight. A year later, he was the laureate of the Liezen Cello Competition in Austria and entered the Fryderyk Chopin School in Poznan, in the class of Danuta Taczanowska. Having won several national and international competitions, he became a member of the National Foundation for Gifted Children. Since September 2014 Kacper has been studying at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, under the direction of Gary Hoffman where he received a scholarship by Haas-Teichen.