Oliver Mascarenhas plays Gulda & Kapustin 
Gulda plays Jazz, Recordings from the NDR archive, 1958 

catalog number 21126 

Friedrich Gulda
Concerto for Cello & Wind Ensemble
Nikolai Kapustin
Nearly Waltz, Elegie, Burlesque
Friedrich Gulda plays Jazz
A night in Tunisia, Delaunay’s dilemma, Blue‘n’Boogie, Doin‘ the thing  

Oliver Mascarenhas, violoncello
Wind Ensemble of NDR Radiophilharmonie 
directed by Gerd Müller-Lorenz
Johannes Nies, piano (Nikolai Kapustin)
Friedrich Gulda, piano & recorder
Hans Last, bass
Karl Sanner, drums 

The very first audition brought Oliver Mascarenhas to the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hanover in 1997. This was followed by a busy concert schedule, radio and television productions, and successes at international competitions. On his first CD production, Oliver Mascarenhas presents himself as a highly virtuoso interpreter of the cello concerto by Friedrich Gulda as well as three pieces by the Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin, who died in July 2020. As bonus tracks we hear Gulda with four jazz standards, recorded in 1958 at the NDR in Hamburg. On bass none other than the young Hans alias James Last.

„There can be no guarantee that I will become a great jazz musician, but at least I shall know that I am doing the right thing ... I don't want to fall into the routine of the modern concert pianist's life“. Friedrich Gulda 

"Listening to it, one imagines Gulda with wrinkled forehead and mischievous grin. He would have had his fun with this excellent recording, interpreted with relish and commitment.

No less excellent are the recordings of the three pieces by Nikolai Kapustin (1937-2020), in which Mascarenhas never plays himself into the foreground and yet attracts attention with his rhythmically exquisite and (also in vibrato) finely nuanced playing as well as beautiful and clear tone. In any case, the cellist is a subtle interpreter who grasps the musical character of each piece and (in Gulda’s case) each passage with optimal flexibility and adapts to it in his playing.
Archive recordings with Friedrich Gulda round out this pleasing CD alternating between musical worlds and styles."

Remy Franck in pizzicato