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Martinu: Complete Piano Music Vol 6 / Giorgio Koukl
Naxos

Martinu: Complete Piano Music Vol 6 / Giorgio Koukl

$19.99 Only 3 left

Details

Composer
MARTINU, BOHUSLAV
Artist
Giorgio Koukl
Format
CD
Label
Naxos
Released
Jun 30, 2009
Catalog #
8572024
UPC
747313202478

About

These two volumes [6 & 7] of the complete solo piano music of Bohuslav Martinu announce the completion of an outstanding undertaking. The series was originally intended to run to only four discs but has since trawled further outwards. The catch means it is now, quite clearly, the most extensive and exhaustive collection of the works for solo piano ever recorded.

Volume six starts with the 1931 Esquisses H203. They’re written in pungent neo-classical form, and hints of chinoiserie, Paris-style, haunt the second of the six, as well as Ragtime. Martinu, though, always remained far more allusive stylistically than fellow Czech Schulhoff in this regard. Impressionist hues haunt the Fourth whilst I’m sure I hear a larky Volga Boatmen embedded in the Ragtime melos of No.5 – plenty of sinewy articulation here.

Jeux was also written in 1931 and is a locus classicus of Martinu cross-rhythms. I suggest you start with No.3 of the four of Book I, which is both fluent and fluid but also sports a characteristically saturnine neo-classical drive. The second book is no less fine for all that: in some ways it’s more piquant still, with a warm and malleable quality to the Andante [No.3] and a martial tune laced with Prokofiev-like moments [No.6]. We go right back to 1917 for Tri lyrické skladby (Three Lyric Pieces). These take in a Mussorgsky Pictures feel in the first of the three. The second starts like an etude, diverts to popular chinoiserie, then noodles off in the direction of the nineteenth century drawing room. Weird mélange.

There are pieces you probably have not come across even in literature devoted to the composer. The Black Bottom is one. It dates from 1927 and is a delightful minute’s worth of your time. The sleeve note writers have relied too much on Wikipedia for this one. Jelly Roll Morton’s Black Bottom Stomp came via Perry Bradford’s introduction of it in 1919 in Nashville, Tennessee, not the Black Bottom district of Detroit. Naturally you won’t be interested in this, but I am.

Vecer na pobreží (Evening at the Shore) dates from 1921 and will intrigue admirers of the composer. In three brief movements he creates an intimate impressionistic tableau, somewhat reliant on Griffes possibly, where, in the central panel, the left hand waves lap into the right hand melody line delightfully and where the storm in the finale gently eases away. This may seem atypical but it shows the ease with which he assimilated French models and distilled them potently. The disc ends with the grand bell peals of Písen beze slov, the valedictory Nocturne and the plangent Chanson triste in D minor....

So Koukl’s pilgrimage has come to its end. He has been a most worthy guide, and now takes his place at the top table of Martinu performers on record. At budget price he has no peers. As a complete cycle this set has no rivals. Individual performances from the likes of Firkušný, Leichner and others may be more arresting in isolation but the overarching reach of Koukl proves dominant and permanent.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

Tracklist 26 tracks

  1. 1 No. 1. Allegretto 01:54
    Track
    1
    Title
    No. 1. Allegretto
    Duration
    01:54
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  2. 2 No. 2. Poco allegro 02:16
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 2. Poco allegro
    Duration
    02:16
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  3. 3 No. 3. Valse 01:23
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 3. Valse
    Duration
    01:23
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  4. 4 No. 4. Poco andantino 02:05
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 4. Poco andantino
    Duration
    02:05
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  5. 5 No. 5. Allegro 01:47
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 5. Allegro
    Duration
    01:47
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  6. 6 No. 6. Allegro 01:38
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 6. Allegro
    Duration
    01:38
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  7. 7 No. 1. Poco allegro 01:23
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 1. Poco allegro
    Duration
    01:23
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  8. 8 No. 2. Poco allegretto 01:06
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 2. Poco allegretto
    Duration
    01:06
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  9. 9 No. 3. Allegretto 01:06
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 3. Allegretto
    Duration
    01:06
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  10. 10 No. 4. Allegro 01:22
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 4. Allegro
    Duration
    01:22
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  11. 11 No. 1. Poco allegretto 01:16
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 1. Poco allegretto
    Duration
    01:16
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  12. 12 No. 2. Poco allegro 01:50
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 2. Poco allegro
    Duration
    01:50
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  13. 13 No. 3. Andante 02:13
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 3. Andante
    Duration
    02:13
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  14. 14 No. 4. Allegro 01:06
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 4. Allegro
    Duration
    01:06
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  15. 15 No. 5. Andante 01:33
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 5. Andante
    Duration
    01:33
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  16. 16 No. 6. Poco allegro 02:14
    Track
    16
    Title
    No. 6. Poco allegro
    Duration
    02:14
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  17. 17 No. 1. Moderato 02:43
    Track
    17
    Title
    No. 1. Moderato
    Duration
    02:43
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  18. 18 No. 2. Andante 01:48
    Track
    18
    Title
    No. 2. Andante
    Duration
    01:48
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  19. 19 No. 3. Scherzando 03:07
    Track
    19
    Title
    No. 3. Scherzando
    Duration
    03:07
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  20. 20 Black Bottom, H. 165 00:52
    Track
    20
    Title
    Black Bottom, H. 165
    Duration
    00:52
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  21. 21 No. 1. Plachetka se vraci vecer do pristavu 02:03
    Track
    21
    Title
    No. 1. Plachetka se vraci vecer do pristavu
    Duration
    02:03
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  22. 22 No. 2. Pisen na pobrezi 01:52
    Track
    22
    Title
    No. 2. Pisen na pobrezi
    Duration
    01:52
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  23. 23 No. 3. Brehy v priboji 03:30
    Track
    23
    Title
    No. 3. Brehy v priboji
    Duration
    03:30
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  24. 24 Pisen beze slov (Song Without Words) in D Minor, H. 46 02:39
    Track
    24
    Title
    Pisen beze slov (Song Without Words) in D Minor, H. 46
    Duration
    02:39
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  25. 25 Nocturne, H. 95 04:10
    Track
    25
    Title
    Nocturne, H. 95
    Duration
    04:10
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl
  26. 26 Chanson triste in D Minor, H. 36 04:22
    Track
    26
    Title
    Chanson triste in D Minor, H. 36
    Duration
    04:22
    Composer
    Bohuslav Martinů
    Performer
    Giorgio Koukl