Description
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Daniel Kramer’s “6 Concert Etudes”, first published by a Russian (former Soviet Union) publisher in 1987 in a combined edition of around 9930 copies with Nikolai Kapustin’s “8 Concert Etudes”, was a very difficult score to find. For this re-publication, Kramer revised the score by adding fingerings and revising the tempo. Together with the concert etudes, a long version of his masterpiece “Credo”, previously only available in an informally scored version by a third party, has also been supervised by Kramer and included as an official version in this score.
Contents
◆6 Concert Etudes
1. Freeway
2. Inspiration (Credo)
3. Etude-Humoresque “Little Devil”
4. Aspiration
5. Spring Mood
6. Movement
◆Credo (Long version)
Preface by Daniel Kramer
The concert etudes presented in this edition were written in 1984 – 1987. In the USSR in the 80s of the 20th century, there was a somewhat strange attitude to jazz music: on the one hand, it was like “pro–American” music, on the other – jazz was developing rapidly, accumulating all information from any sources that could appear in the USSR during the “Iron Curtain”. I graduated from the Gnessin Institute (now the Russian Academy of Music) in 1983, and already in 1984, I performed at my first professional jazz festival in Vitebsk (Belarus), writing for this performance one of the sketches presented here, “Credo”. I named it that way because even then I understood that, loving both classical and jazz music at the same time, I would play in both aesthetics all my life.In addition, even then I saw in my country a huge prospect of mixing these styles, and time has shown that I was not wrong then. When in 1987 the publishing house “Soviet Music” decided to print my etudes together with “8 Concert Etudes” by Nikolai Kapustin, I was not allowed to keep the name “Credo”, because, according to the editors of that time, it was ideologically wrong and glorified religious aspirations. My explanations of the true meaning of the title did not make an impression, and the etude was called “Inspiration” by the editors. Nevertheless, in all my concert performances I continued to print the name “Credo”.
There were no problems with the other five etudes during publication. They were written specifically to develop professional piano and professional jazz piano skills. In addition to purely artistic tasks, each etude has a clearly defined technological task, emphasized by fingering and punctuation. The etudes are written in a variety of styles because when writing them, I also pursued the tasks of stylistic training.
I sincerely wish all future performers to enjoy both working on the etudes and performing them, and for future listeners to enjoy the music.
Daniel Kramer
29th of July, 2022
Daniel Kramer（ダニエル・クラーメル）
Daniel Kramer（Даниил Крамер）
Daniel Kramer is a unique figure of Russian jazz. Daniel combines in his work the gift of a highly professional pianist, who is sensitive to a variety of styles, a bright composer, a talented teacher, and a TV presenter. His multifaceted activity is devoted to jazz and its popularization in our country, and not only. And in this vein, Daniel Kramer is one of the leading figures of Russian jazz and the Russian music scene. Since 1984, he has been touring intensively, participating in almost all domestic jazz festivals. Since 1988, the pianist’s foreign concert and festival activities have begun. Solo concerts and performances with various musicians took place in many countries – France, the USA, Spain, Australia, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Germany, Finland, China, Africa, and Central America. Daniel Kramer participates in many major international jazz festivals, such as Munchner Klaviersommer (Germany), Manly Jazz Festival (Australia), European Jazz Festival (Spain), Baltic Jazz Festival (Finland), and Foire de Paris (France). He was elected an Honorary Member of the Sydney Professional Jazz Club (Professional Musicians’ Club).
Since 1995, Daniel Kramer has been organizing various concert cycles in Russia, such as “Jazz Music in Academic Halls”, “Jazz Evenings with Daniel Kramer”, “Classics and Jazz”, and “Museum Jazz”, which take place both in Moscow in the form of traditional concerts (Moscow International House of Music, Bolshoi and The Small halls of the Conservatory, the Museum named after Glinka), and in many cities of Russia in the form of annual concert subscriptions – in Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Omsk, Perm, Izhevsk, Samara, Saratov, Tolyatti, Krasnoyarsk, Kazan, Ufa, Belgorod, and other cities, enjoying great popularity.
During his creative activity, Kramer has created many concert projects and programs with the participation of leading Russian and foreign musicians. An important place in his musical life is also occupied by collaboration with many symphonic and chamber orchestras, such as, for example, the State Chamber Orchestra “Virtuosi of Moscow”, “Musica Viva”, the Pavel Kogan Orchestra, the Russian Philharmonic, “Prima Vera”, “Camerata de Bourgogne” and others. The program includes both jazz and pop-jazz music and classical works. The musician tours a lot abroad – both in an exclusive jazz role and as a soloist in concerts of symphony orchestras. He plays with many European performers and ensembles and takes part in jazz and academic festivals. Kramer is the art director of several Russian jazz festivals, a member of the jury, and chairman of various jazz competitions.
Currently, Daniel Kramer continues his teaching career at the Moscow Institute of Contemporary Art as the head of the jazz department. Since 2017, the author and host of the program “True Role” on the federal Russian channel OTR. In his solo concerts, the pianist performs music in different directions: traditional jazz, various types of modern jazz music, and classics.
