Martinu: Complete Piano Music Vol 2 / Giorgio Koukl

$13.99
Label
Naxos
Release Date
February 27, 2007
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      MARTINU, BOHUSLAV
    • PERFORMER
      Giorgio Koukl
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      February 27, 2007
    • UPC
      747313291823
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      8557918
    • LABEL
      Naxos
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Instrumental
    Works ⌄

    1. No. 1. Pierrotovo zastavenicko (Pierrot's Serenade)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    2. No. 2. Valcik sentimentalni loutky (The Sentimental Puppet's Waltz)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    3. No. 3. Colombina (Columbine)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    4. No. 4. Ples loutek (Puppet Ball)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    5. No. 1. Loutkove divadlo (Puppet Show)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    6. No. 2. Harlekyn (Harlequin)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    7. No. 3. Colombina vzpomina (Columbine Remembers)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    8. No. 4. Nemocna loutka (The Sick Puppet)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    9. No. 5. Colombina zpiva (Columbine Sings)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    10. No. 1. Colombina tanci (Columbine Dances)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    11. No. 2. Nova loutka (The New Puppet) (Shimmy)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    12. No. 3. Ostychava panenka (The Shy Puppet)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    13. No. 4. Pohádka (Fairy-tale)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    14. No. 5. Tanec loutek (Dance of The Puppets)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    15. I. Tango

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    16. II. Scherzo

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    17. III. Ukolebavka (Berceuse)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    18. IV. Valse

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    19. V. Chanson

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    20. VI. Carillon

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    21. I. Co si ted budeme hrati? Na honenou? (What shall we play now? Tag?)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    22. II. Myslim, ze bych uz mel jit spat. (I think I should go to sleep now)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    23. III. Proc bychom si nezahrali na vojaky. (Why shouldn't we play soldiers?)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    24. IV. Neni to snad nic zleho, utrhnu-li si nekolik kvetin. (It isn't bad, is it, to pick a few flowers)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    25. I. Motyli v kvetinach (Butterflies in flowers)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    26. II. Motyli a rajky (Butterflies and birds of paradise)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    27. III. Rajky nad morem (Birds of paradise above the sea)

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    28. The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon, H. 318

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl

    29. Les bouquinistes du Quai Malaquais, H. 319

      Composer: Bohuslav Martinů

      Performer: Giorgio Koukl




A fascinating selection of Martinu's early piano works, plus two late trifles

In his classic biography of Martinu (Allen Wingate: 1962), Milos Šafránek states that in “the large and varied assortment of youthful works and experiments, Puppets holds a singular and significant place”. Composed in three sets between 1912 and 1924 (but published in reverse sequence; they are played here in chronological order), Puppets sounds anything but experimental now, though for Martinu’s hometown of Policka just after the Great War, the somewhat Satiesque charms of these 14 pieces must have seemed highly modern.

Heard with the innocent ear, most listeners would be hard put to identify the composer of Puppets and I suspect the same applies for another of the novelties here, the pretty, if flimsy, children’s suite Spring in the Garden (1920). This is no match for what Mark Gresham calls “the bold, jazzy and propulsive” Film en miniature (1925), one of the first products of Martinu’s Paris sojourn. The pearl of Koukl’s programme, though, is Butterflies and Birds of Paradise, written at Christmas of the same year as Spring in the Garden but light years ahead of it in quality. Here Martinu uses impressionism as if born to it.

Still, none of these early pieces, nor even The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon (1948, dedicated to Tcherepnin’s wife and the only work otherwise available) really sound like the mature Martinu. Only in the 29th and final track, The Booksellers of the Quai Malaquais (1948; dedicated to the composer’s wife) do we encounter one of those heart-stopping themes familiar from the symphonies. Koukl’s performances, occasionally a little over-robust, as in Butterflies, are very warmly recorded but this is a splendid disc despite that. Recommended.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone [5/2007]