CD ‘In Plain Sight’ – OUT NOW! (May 2026)
“the most fantastic advert for female classical composers” Sarah Walker, BBC Radio 3
“Kacperek’s fluid playing makes even the most challenging pieces sound effortless… a must-listen for anyone interested in unusual piano repertoire” Jessica Duchen, BBC Music Magazine
The women composers heard here were never hidden: they were present, active, and often celebrated in their own time, their music performed, published, and enjoyed alongside that of their male contemporaries. Some of them moved in the same artistic circles as Mozart, Haydn, Liszt, Grieg, and others; their works meet the same highest artistic standards. In Plain Sight does not set out to argue or proclaim. Rather, it offers a listening experience created by genuine fascination with this repertoire – some of it recorded commercially for the first time – and trusts the music to speak with its own authority.
In Plain Sight – Media Coverage & Recognition so far:
- Featured live on BBC Radio 3 – In Tune, with additional tracks broadcast across Breakfast, Essential Classics, Sunday Morning, and Saturday Morning.
- Featured by ORF Ö1 (Austria) – Komponistinnen im Fokus
- Feature Album of the Week on ABC Classic (Australia).
- Album of the Week on RNZ Concert (New Zealand).
- Featured on Polish Radio 2 (Program Drugi Polskiego Radia) with an interview and tracks broadcast on Płytomania, the station’s programme dedicated to new releases.
- Reviewed in BBC Music Magazine.
- Achieved over 172,000 streams on Apple Music and 41,000 streams on Spotify.
- Reached the UK Official Classical Chart.
- Interview featured on Radio POSK London.
CD ‘Variations’ (Rubicon Classics RCD1197) September 2024
Joanna Kacperek’s auspicious debut album ‘Variations‘ brings a fascinating programme of challenging pieces fit for a virtuosic pianist from great romantic composers; Beethoven, Brahms, the Schumanns, Dutilleux, Chaminade & Chopin.
Clara Schumann’s ‘Variations on a theme of Robert Schumann’ were a set of works Clara had dedicated to her husband Robert on his birthday in 1853, just 3 short years before he passed. Brahms’ ‘Theme and Variations’ is a piano transcription of his Sextet in B Flat, a chamber work that upon hearing it, Clara Schumann grew delighted and requested Brahms to write for piano for her pleasure. Closing the album is Dutilleux’s ‘Choral and Variations’ from his Piano Sonata, a piece that was dedicated and premiered by his wife Geneviève Joy in 1948. Many of the featured works of this album have a personal touch to them, as they were dedicated to someone close to the composer’s hearts.
The remaining works of ‘Variations’ are those which have recieved less spectacle and are slowly being rediscovered today; Chopin’s ‘Variations brillantes’, Robert Schumann’s ‘Etudes in Variation Form on a Theme by Beethoven’ (based on Symhony No. 7: Mvt II) and Cécile Chaminade ‘s Thème varié.