The seventh volume in Koukl’s mammoth survey
of the complete piano music of Bohuslav Martinů brings forward
a wide range of music, covering the first half of the composer’s
career. The two fairy tale suites show nothing we don’t
already know about the young Martinu, except that the first movement
of the
From Andersen’s Fairy-Tales could almost
be some modern day pop ballad, so easy-going and simple is the
music. There’s nothing here to raise the temperature of
your blood, in the way that the
Fantasy and Toccata does,
but these are lovely miniatures - if, at times, a trifle heavy-handed
in their compositional execution. They are well deserving of
a hearing, though quite how often one will come back to them
is debatable.
Ballade, Chopin’s Last Chords is a tough piece,
which exists without recourse to smiles! It’s all so serious,
and so like what has preceded it that it could be another movement
of that piece so similar is the music.
Merry Christmas 1941 comes
from Martinů’s maturity, written in New York, and
it’s relaxed and full of humour.
The Little Lullaby if
not, perhaps, exactly subtle - I cannot imagine this putting
anyone to sleep, especially the animated middle section - has
an endearing tune and it is worked out quite nicely.
La Danse is
an example of very laboured jazz,
Le train hanté is
a piece in motor rhythm and the
Foxtrot narozerný na
růžku is an obvious music-hall type of piece. All
three works are clearly of their time and are most enjoyable
sidelights on the work of Les Six.
Prélude is
a chordal study with the sound of bells - it might just remind
you, in a passing moment, of the
Grand Gate at Kiev from
Pictures
at an Exhibition.
Suddenly, with
The Spring we enter a new sound-world.
This could be Delius in places, and impressionistic Debussy at
times, but there is the firm stamp of an original mind at work.
This is a most pleasing work. The four
Children’s Pieces certainly
don’t waste any time, the longest is 39 seconds, the shortest
21! And the final
Avec un doigt - in which Mrs Koukl plays
the important one finger part - is a real hoot which brings this
collection to a riotous close.
To be sure, there are no masterworks here, and the two suites
which start the collection are rather hard work, but the miniatures
are totally delightful. In the long run this is one for die-hard
Martinů fans. I cannot imagine anybody else actually having
any interest in these pieces. Those who want to investigate this
composer would do much better to go to one of the first four
volumes where there’s more consistent and original works.
But I am all for more Martinů on disk so to all those who,
like me, are crazy about Martinů, this will not disappoint.
Bob Briggs
see also review by Jonathan
Woolf
Giorgio Koukl (piano) 
