Giorgio Koukl - Piano Music 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The freshness of works of a young master this is what we discover on the new GENUIN album presented by the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra Essen under the direction of Johannes Klumpp. In Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Divertimenti K. 136-138, we hear a young composer in the process of growing up. The top-class, versatile orchestra performs these sparkling treasures lovingly and with spirit, full of dynamism and effervescent humor. Energetic concerts, curious programs and musical excellence have been the hallmarks of the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra in Essen for 64 years. In it's concerts, the international, young ensemble under the direction of chief conductor Johannes Klumpp explores new limits and experiments with concert forms, genres and styles other art forms are regularly combined to music in the concerts.

Polish composer Alfons Szczerbinski was a Romantic who revered Bach, Haydn and Mozart above all others. Many of his scores were lost during the First World War or destroyed by the composer himself. His most extrovert music exudes the panache and rhythmic brio of Chopin whilst his series of Chansons sans paroles display a flair for harmonic fantasy and melodic beauty reminiscent of Mendelssohn. Giorgio Koukl's second volume of Szczerbinski's complete piano music reveals yet more discoveries by this unjustly neglected composer.

The Hungarian-born composer TIBOR HARSÁNYI is now recognized as an important personality in 'L'École de Paris'. He had a lifelong interest in modern dance, represented here by the Petite suite and Trois Pièces de danse, and he also embraced jazz, which was part of the Parisian atmosphere of the inter-war period, and other influences, while keeping the Central European rhythms and tonalities of his Hungarian origins. The Trois Pièces lyriques is a rare example of Harsányi expressing torment during the turbulent years of the Second World War. GIORGIO KOUKL is a pianist/harpsichordist and composer. He studied at both the Conservatories of Zürich and Milan, where he took part in the masterclasses of Nikita Magaloff, Jacques Février, and Stanislaus Neuhaus, and with Rudolf Firkušný, friend and advocate of Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu. It was through Firkušný that Koukl first encountered Martinu's music, and is now considered one of the world's leading interpreters of Martinu's piano music. As a logical continuation of this work, Koukl has recorded the complete solo piano works of Paul Le Flem, Alexander Tcherepnin, Arthur Lourié, Vítezslava Kaprálová, Witold Lutoslawski, and more recently, Alexandre Tansman and Tibor Harsányi.