Information
Composer: Alexander Tcherepnin
Giorgio Koukl, piano
Date: 2014
Label: Grand Piano
https://grandpianorecords.com/Album/AlbumDetails/GP658
- (01) Voeux (Wishes), Op. 39b
- (08) Polka (version for piano)
- (09) Étude de concert
- (10) Canzona, Op. 28
- (11) Autour des Montagnes Russes (Riding the Roller Coaster)
- (12) Toccata, Op. 20
- (13) Pastoral (arranged by the composer from the Lost Flute, Op. 89: Introduction)
- (14) Canon, Op. posth. (version for piano)
- (15) Dialogue (arranged by the composer from Suite géorgienne, Op. 57: II. —)
- (16) Old St Petersburg
- (17) Ballade
- (18) Souvenir de voyage
- (19) Badinage
Giorgio Koukl, piano
Date: 2014
Label: Grand Piano
https://grandpianorecords.com/Album/AlbumDetails/GP658
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Voeux, written in 1927 at the same time as his Message (see Volume 2) bears the opus no. 39B and since Message is Op.39 there is the suggestion that there is some kind of connection. As the booklet writers of the entire series, Cary Lewis and Mark Gresham put it, “One wonders idly if there could be a hint in these pieces as to what the meaning of the Message might be.” That said, with their subtitles, these ‘wishes’ are complete in their captivating musical descriptions from the first "Pour mon Saint" (for my Saint) through those for his "family, for feeling, middleclass happiness, work, life" and closing with "for peace in the Middle East". The latter was withdrawn at first following the defeat of an “Islamic leader who was viewed as a threat to Western civilisation”, an example, if ever there was one, of the saying “what goes around comes around”! These pieces confirm Tcherepnin’s total mastery of the miniature. None of them runs much over two minutes; "For Peace in the Middle East" is a mere 45 seconds long.
Polka comes from the wartime years that the Tcherepnin family was forced to spend in Paris following the Occupation. The composer admitted that this was his least productive period during which he described what he did write, often for revues, music halls and dancers, as “trash”. When you listen to this polka which he at least relented about, orchestrating it later, you can only come to the conclusion that he was being too self-critical. Composers often take this excessively severe line, in many cases leading to the destruction of certain works. Thankfully this was not the fate of this charming, witty, knockabout piece that Lewis and Gresham understandably compare to Shostakovich’s polka from The Golden Age which was premièred in 1930.
The Étude de concert, here receiving its world première recording thanks to the Sacher Foundation's Tcherepnin Archive, is an exceptional piece. It dates from 1920 when the composer was still in Tbilisi before finally settling in Paris. It requires a certain deftness because of its requirement for the left hand to keep leapfrogging the right, as explained in the notes. Canzona from four years later incorporates mood-swings from the capricious to a serious and darkly declared feeling of menace. It ends with a cheeky little scherzo.
It was fascinating to read of the back-story surrounding the next piece Autour des montagnes Russes (Riding the roller-coaster). It concerns Tcherepnin hearing of a commission given eight French composers to celebrate the Paris International Exhibition of 1937. Tcherepnin suggested that a group of foreign composers then living in Paris should do the same. This was agreed to and both he and Martinů ended up composing pieces concerning the roller-coaster - known as Russian Mountains in France and American Mountains in Russia. This clever and witty piece was his contribution and his explanation of its meaning is a great aid to the listener, involving someone chickening out and instead watching it buck and ride from the sidelines.
One of Tcherepnin’s longest pieces for piano comes next in the shape of his Toccata No.2 from 1922. This calls for a huge amount of dexterity with the pianist’s hands having to leap about across the length of the keyboard. The following Pastoral is another miraculous miniature in which we are taken to China where Tcherepnin spent some time. It was where he met the woman who was to become his second wife. In a mere 1:44 we have oriental melodies and a splash of jazz in a delightful mixture of innocuous fun.
After the posthumous Canon, making its debut on disc, we have a beautiful work, the Dialogue from his Suite Géorgienne which incorporates a delicious Georgian melody. This he used at various times in different guises and for different instrumental combinations with this solo piano version working extremely well. From Georgia we are then transported back to Old St. Petersburg, another piece whose manuscript was generously provided by the Sacher Foundation for this project. In it the then 18 year old composer encapsulates in waltz form the grandeur that existed in certain circles in the then capital city that was about to be so momentously transformed. The next work, also provided by the Sacher Foundation and thus also making it onto disc for the first time, is the Ballade, the second longest work Tcherepnin wrote for piano. It is one that clearly involves a story we can only guess at but which is full of drama and hints at themes from Grieg’s Piano Concerto. It is a work packed full of contrasting styles from graceful, dancing rhythms to towering moments full of anxiety that seek fruitlessly for solution. The work ends on a tragic note.
What a contrast we find in the penultimate piece. Souvenir de Voyage is a real tongue-in-cheek, fun-packed and breathless whirlwind musical tour of as many countries as Tcherepnin could allude to in under three minutes. As the booklet writers point out this is a veritable exercise of ‘name that tune’ at which I failed miserably though I thought detected eleven possibilities among which Britain, France and Italy were represented. Tcherepnin wrote this to send to his wife explained pianist Giorgio Koukl by way of a musical postcard - how charming. The very last piece on the disc is Badinage. This sported the original title of Cloches et Clochettes. It is a measure of Tcherepnin’s personality that he could rise above the horrors of occupied Paris to pen this little delight in 1941.
This disc is another piece in the jigsaw that makes up the picture of a composer who wrote in so many varied styles ranging from the apparently frivolous nature of the last two pieces to the weighty drama of the Étude de concert and the Toccata No.2. Here stands a man that could let his hair down as well as write extremely serious works that never fail to amaze. Giorgio Koukl is, as ever, a brilliant exponent of this fascinating music.
-- Steve Arloff, MusicWeb International
Polka comes from the wartime years that the Tcherepnin family was forced to spend in Paris following the Occupation. The composer admitted that this was his least productive period during which he described what he did write, often for revues, music halls and dancers, as “trash”. When you listen to this polka which he at least relented about, orchestrating it later, you can only come to the conclusion that he was being too self-critical. Composers often take this excessively severe line, in many cases leading to the destruction of certain works. Thankfully this was not the fate of this charming, witty, knockabout piece that Lewis and Gresham understandably compare to Shostakovich’s polka from The Golden Age which was premièred in 1930.
The Étude de concert, here receiving its world première recording thanks to the Sacher Foundation's Tcherepnin Archive, is an exceptional piece. It dates from 1920 when the composer was still in Tbilisi before finally settling in Paris. It requires a certain deftness because of its requirement for the left hand to keep leapfrogging the right, as explained in the notes. Canzona from four years later incorporates mood-swings from the capricious to a serious and darkly declared feeling of menace. It ends with a cheeky little scherzo.
It was fascinating to read of the back-story surrounding the next piece Autour des montagnes Russes (Riding the roller-coaster). It concerns Tcherepnin hearing of a commission given eight French composers to celebrate the Paris International Exhibition of 1937. Tcherepnin suggested that a group of foreign composers then living in Paris should do the same. This was agreed to and both he and Martinů ended up composing pieces concerning the roller-coaster - known as Russian Mountains in France and American Mountains in Russia. This clever and witty piece was his contribution and his explanation of its meaning is a great aid to the listener, involving someone chickening out and instead watching it buck and ride from the sidelines.
One of Tcherepnin’s longest pieces for piano comes next in the shape of his Toccata No.2 from 1922. This calls for a huge amount of dexterity with the pianist’s hands having to leap about across the length of the keyboard. The following Pastoral is another miraculous miniature in which we are taken to China where Tcherepnin spent some time. It was where he met the woman who was to become his second wife. In a mere 1:44 we have oriental melodies and a splash of jazz in a delightful mixture of innocuous fun.
After the posthumous Canon, making its debut on disc, we have a beautiful work, the Dialogue from his Suite Géorgienne which incorporates a delicious Georgian melody. This he used at various times in different guises and for different instrumental combinations with this solo piano version working extremely well. From Georgia we are then transported back to Old St. Petersburg, another piece whose manuscript was generously provided by the Sacher Foundation for this project. In it the then 18 year old composer encapsulates in waltz form the grandeur that existed in certain circles in the then capital city that was about to be so momentously transformed. The next work, also provided by the Sacher Foundation and thus also making it onto disc for the first time, is the Ballade, the second longest work Tcherepnin wrote for piano. It is one that clearly involves a story we can only guess at but which is full of drama and hints at themes from Grieg’s Piano Concerto. It is a work packed full of contrasting styles from graceful, dancing rhythms to towering moments full of anxiety that seek fruitlessly for solution. The work ends on a tragic note.
What a contrast we find in the penultimate piece. Souvenir de Voyage is a real tongue-in-cheek, fun-packed and breathless whirlwind musical tour of as many countries as Tcherepnin could allude to in under three minutes. As the booklet writers point out this is a veritable exercise of ‘name that tune’ at which I failed miserably though I thought detected eleven possibilities among which Britain, France and Italy were represented. Tcherepnin wrote this to send to his wife explained pianist Giorgio Koukl by way of a musical postcard - how charming. The very last piece on the disc is Badinage. This sported the original title of Cloches et Clochettes. It is a measure of Tcherepnin’s personality that he could rise above the horrors of occupied Paris to pen this little delight in 1941.
This disc is another piece in the jigsaw that makes up the picture of a composer who wrote in so many varied styles ranging from the apparently frivolous nature of the last two pieces to the weighty drama of the Étude de concert and the Toccata No.2. Here stands a man that could let his hair down as well as write extremely serious works that never fail to amaze. Giorgio Koukl is, as ever, a brilliant exponent of this fascinating music.
-- Steve Arloff, MusicWeb International
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Tcherepnin
***
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Koukl
http://www.luxnova.com/~musicplay/koukl/
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