A pianist by day and a YouTuber by night, Hayato Sumino from Japan is undoubtedly one of the most versatile artists combining the life of a concert virtuoso with vlogging. Known online as Cateen, he has gathered almost one and a half million subscribers on his channel, following his videos with new arrangements. During his recital at the NFM, the excellent instrumentalist and improviser will reach for the works of great composers of past eras, such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Alexander Scriabin, to crown the night with his own pieces inspired by or being arrangements of Fryderyk Chopin and Maurice Ravel.

In the performance practice of Baroque, improvising skills played a significant role. It is therefore not surprising that Sumino, as a multi-talented pianist with the flair of a distinguished arranger, boldly reaches for the legacy of the master of that period – Johann Sebastian Bach, whose work is a brilliantly woven musical fabric. The concert will begin with pieces from the Leipzig period of this composer’s work. The pianist will perform the cheerful Prelude and Fugue in C major BWV 870, which opens the second volume of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, and the legendary Partita II in C minor BWV 826, which is characterised by a noble austerity of sound. Eight Concert Etudes op. 40 is one of the most popular collections in the colorful oeuvre of Nikolai Kapustin – a composer and pianist who combined classical influences with stylistic elements drawn from jazz. The etudes, created in 1984, are a virtuoso synthesis of these trends and pose considerable technical challenges to their performers. During the recital, the pianist will play five of them. 

“A poem for piano” is how Alexander Scriabin, one of the leading expressionists of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, used to describe his Piano Sonata No. 5 op. 53. This work is a true early-20th-century gem due to its one-movement structure, which is unusual for the genre, and the programmatic features that the composer introduced by including a fragment of his poem Extase in the score. Sumino will also perform several of his own pieces – Two Pieces of Chopin’s Recompositions, Three Nocturnes and Human Universe come from the artist’s latest album. The recital will end with an unconventional arrangement of “orchestral tissue without music” – as Maurice Ravel used to say about his legendary Bolero, which in its orchestral version delights with simplicity on the one hand and excellent instrumentation on the other.