CD ‘Variations’ (Rubicon Classics RCD1197)

‘Any striking variation set demands from its interpreter a rainbow of poetic and coloristic imagination – and the technique to bring those ideas to life. The demands
multiply with seven such pieces, leading to a CD-length album with 44 tracks. Yet Joanna Kacperek – a young Polish pianist, now based in London – has chosen well for this impressive debut album, and finds something individual in each track without resort to eccentricity.
Schumann’s variations on the Allegretto from Beethoven’s Seventh put a familiar theme through unfamiliar paces; Claras variations on a theme by Robert seem to draw on both of their creative reserves, inspired by the example of Beethoven no less than Brahms (or, much later, Dutilleux). Beethoven himself forms the fitting centrepiece of the sequence – in another lesser-known example of his variation genius, the Op 34 set. Kacperck is as grave and gentle here as she is lucid and carefree in Chaminade’s Thème varie, making light of some taxing demands.’
Peter Quantrill, ‘The Pianist’ (October-November 2024)