Frank Dupree here continues his cycle of Kapustin concertos with Nos 2 and 6, plus a sprinkling of fillers, nicely arranged in chronological order. None of these is claimed as a first recording, and certainly the Second Concerto has been brilliantly done by Dmitry Masleev on Melodiya. But I’m not sure where I would go to find an alternative for No 6. At any rate, the performances here are delivered with tremendous zip and pizzazz, not only by the supremely athletic Dupree but also by his favourite drummer Meinhard ‘Obi’ Jenne and the SWR Big Band and Symphony Orchestra.

All commentators on Kapustin, whether critics or exponents, end up listing affinities with a whole roster of classical composers and jazz pianists. And that is perhaps the problem. Unlike, say, Gerswhin, Ravel, Tatum or Peterson, it is hard to identify an individual voice and rather easy to detect a synthetic quality underlying the undoubted massive talent. Kapustin himself disowned the label jazz, since everything he wrote was fully notated. Essentially what he achieved was high-class Soviet light music, with no ambitions above or beyond entertaining and energising his audiences.

This impression is, for me at least, reinforced when big band and symphony orchestra are part of the mix. The colours are attractive enough but the sense of direction is less clear than in Kapustin’s solo piano music, where the personality of the soloist has free rein to shape the structure. In the concertos, I cannot quite shake off the suspicion that the music is busy going nowhere.

This is no reflection on Dupree, whose advocacy is as expert and idiomatic as the finest solo Kapustinians (notably Osborne and Hamelin). No less vibrant are the orchestral accompaniments. All concerned have set the bar very high indeed for any who may feel emboldened to compete. And I stress that my doubts about the music itself are by way of a minority report. Confirmed Kapustin followers have every reason to pounce and none whatsoever to hesitate.