Bohuslav Martinů - Piano Music Vol. 5 (Giorgio Koukl)

Information

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

• 6 Polkas, H. 101
• 5 Waltzes, H. 5

Giorgio Koukl, piano

Date: 2009

Label: Naxos

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Review

Emil Leichner's old Supraphon survey of Martinu's piano music filled three CDs but Giorgio Koukl's newly minted one has left that well behind. Leichner selected all the major items but one of the incidental joys of Koukl's superior set - superior in terms of both performance and sound quality - has been the newly discovered works which have increasingly dominated the later issues. The present disc consists entirely of such novelties: indeed, these two early cycles emerge into the limelight after nine decades of obscurity.

The six Polkas 1916 form the larger group, written one imagines to divert amid the horrors of the Great War. The musical language is rather generically Bohemian, reminiscent of Dvorak and - at a greater distance - Smetana, with few hints of Martinu's familiar neo-classical or late styles. None the less, there is much to be enjoyed in each of the roughly five-minute-long works, best heard as miniature dance fantasies. The opening Allegretto (ma non troppo) is typical of the set, nicely laid out for the keyboard and full of pleasing sonorities and tunes. The Allegro sixth is built on a slightly larger scale, drawing together many facets of the set as befits the finale.

The coupling is earlier still, indeed Martinu's first piano work, Five Waltzes written in 1910 before he had started his main composition studies. These again are pleasant enough although stylistically anonymous. In neither work is there any pretence to great music but Koukl plays them for all they are worth, aided by fine sound. The result is rather rewarding; two further volumes, it seems, are to follow and I for one cannot wait.

— Guy Rickards

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Bohuslav Martinů (December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He was a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and briefly studied under Czech composer and violinist Josef Suk. Martinů was a prolific composer who wrote almost 400 pieces. Many of his works are regularly performed or recorded, among them his oratorio The Epic of Gilgamesh, his six symphonies, concertos, chamber music, a flute sonata, a clarinet sonatina and many others. Martinů's notable students include Alan Hovhaness, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Jan Novák and many others.

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Giorgio Koukl (born 1953 in Prague) is a pianist and composer. He studied in Prague, Zürich and Milan; among his teachers was Rudolf Firkušný, who introduced him to the works Bohuslav Martinů. Koukl became a leading interpreter of Martinů's piano music, recording his complete piano solo works and concertos. He later expanded his repertoire to include piano works by composers like Le Flem, Tcherepnin, Lourié, Kaprálová, Lutosławski, Tansman and Harsányi. Performing internationally across Europe, North America and Asia, Koukl records exclusively for Naxos and appears frequently in solo and chamber concerts.

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