ARTHUR VINCENT LOURIÉ (1891–1966)

COMPLETE PIANO WORKS • 2

GIORGIO KOUKL

“After the success of volume 1 of complete piano music by Arthur Lourié, it is a real joy to complete the cycle with the best works the composer has dedicated to piano. All the complexity of his evolution is present on this disc, musical solutions that more famous composers of his time have simply copied years later. Lourié is now recognized as a precursor, a visionary mind capable of surprising us at every moment and to which an entire generation of musicians views with admiration.” – Giorgio Koukl

“The best possible advocate for the exciting sound travel into the inner world of piano” – Piano News on Lourié Complete Piano Works • 1

GP750
Listen to an excerpt from Phoenix Park Nocturne
Arthur Vincent Lourié
ARTHUR VINCENT LOURIÉ
(1891–1966)

About this Recording

The second volume in Giorgio Koukl’s complete survey of Arthur Vincent Lourié’s piano music spans the years 1912 to 1938. In that time the Belarus-born composer embraced extended tonality in Deux Poèmes, Op. 8, huge Scriabinesque chords in Synthèses, Op. 16 and forward-looking harmonic astringency in the Sonatina No. 3. His post-Revolutionary Paris years are represented by a sequence of characterful miniatures.

DEUX POÈMES, OP. 8 (1912) (07:21)
1
No. 1 Essor (02:05)
2
No. 2 Ivresse (05:16)
3
MENUETT NACH GLUCK (1914) (03:19)
SINTEZÏ (SYNTHÈSES), OP. 16 (1914) (07:08)
4
No. 1 Lent (01:31)
5
No. 2 Modérément animé (01:36)
6
No. 3 Vite (aigu) (01:47)
7
No. 4 Assez vite, mais toujours mesuré (01:15)
8
No. 5 Mesuré (00:59)
DNEVNOJ UZOR (DAYTIME ROUTINE) (1915) (11:29)
9
No. 1 Étude (Study) (01:10)
10
No. 2 Promenade (Walk) (03:18)
11
No. 3 Ombres (Shadows) (02:51)
12
No. 4 Sorcellerie (Sorcery) (02:20)
13
No. 5 Polissonerie (Mischievousness) (01:50)
ROJAL’ V DETSKOJ (EIGHT SCENES OF RUSSIAN CHILDHOOD) (1917) (10:35)
14
No. 1 The porcelain shepherd and his flock (01:00)
15
No. 2 Little trepak (01:22)
16
No. 3 A good boy (00:58)
17
No. 4 A naughty boy (01:04)
18
No. 5 Bogey man (01:07)
19
No. 6 Lullaby (02:03)
20
No. 7 Sun and shower (01:53)
21
No. 8 Children’s song: The Kitten Climbed on the Fence
(Wlazł kotek na płotek) (01:08)
22
PIANO SONATINA NO. 3 (1917) (03:23)
23
TOCCATA (1924) (05:08)
24
VALSE (1926) (04:10)
25
GIGUE (1927) (05:01)
26
MARCHE (1926) (02:30)
27
NOCTURNE (1928) (06:56)
28
INTERMEZZO (1928) (05:53)
29
BERCEUSE DE LA CHEVRETTE (1936) (03:19)
30
PHOENIX PARK NOCTURNE (1938) (05:05)

TOTAL TIME: 81:18

Giorgio Koukl

GIORGIO KOUKL

Giorgio Koukl is a pianist/harpsichordist and composer. He studied in Prague at the state music school and conservatory before continuing his studies at both the conservatories of Zurich and Milan, where he took part in the masterclasses of Nikita Magalov, Jacques Février, and Stanislaus Neuhaus, and with Rudolf Firkušný, friend and advocate of Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. It was through Firkušný that Koukl first encountered Martinů’s music, eventually becoming one of the world’s leading interpreters of Martinů’s piano music. As a logical continuation of this work, Koukl has recorded the complete solo piano works of Paul Le Flem, a Breton composer who belonged to the Parisian circle of Martinů, Tcherepnin and Tansman, of Arthur Lourié, an important member of the “silver age” group of Russian composers, and of Vítězslava Kaprálová.

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