Vítězslava Kaprálová - Complete Piano Music (Giorgio Koukl)

Information

Composer: Vítězslava Kaprálová

• Sonata appasionata, Op. 6
• Praeludium, Op. 9 No. 1
• Crab Canon, Op. 9 No. 2
• Grotesque Passacaglia
• 5 Piano Compositions
• Dubnová Preludia, Op. 13
• Variations sur le carillon de l'église St-Étienne-du-Mont, Op. 16
• 2 Dances for Piano, Op. 23: No. 1, — (Reconstructed by G. Koukl)
• 2 Bouquets of Flowers
• Little Song
• Ostinato Fox
• Festive Fanfare

Giorgio Koukl, piano

Date: 2017

Label: Grand Piano

https://grandpianorecords.com/Album/AlbumDetails/GP708

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Once remembered mainly as the dedicatee of Martin∞’s Fifth String Quartet, Vítezslava Kaprálová (1915-1940) has emerged from the shadows of the men in her brief but intense life as one of the leading Czech composers of her day. Born in Brno, she was surrounded by pupils of Janácek, including her father Václav Kaprál, Ludvík Kundera (father of the novelist Milan Kundera) and the great pianist Rudolf Firkun. Moving to Paris to study with Martinu, she became his lover and both their musical outputs bear testimony to the bittersweet turbulence of the relationship, which ended in April 1940 when she married Jirí Mucha (himself son of the famous Art Nouveau painter Alphonse Mucha). Seven weeks later she was dead from tuberculosis, and Martin∞ was fleeing Vichy France for America.

So it is not hard to understand how her fascinating yet tragic biography has obscured the quality of her own musical achievements (which include becoming probably the first woman to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra). Giorgio Koukl’s survey of her complete solo piano music spans the years 1933 to 1940 and includes world premiere recordings, among them of her final piano work, an unpublished Dance reconstructed by Koukl; intriguingly, it seems to pre-echo the spirit of Martin∞’s Etudes and Polkas. The masterpieces here are the April Preludes and Variations du le Carillon de l’église St Étienne-du-Mont, but it is good to hear them in context of works all reflecting Kaprálová’s early emotional and pianistic maturity. Koukl’s project is admirably conceived and performed, yet some of this music still awaits a player able to fully match Kaprálová’s flair.

-- John Allison, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Feb/Kapralova_piano_GP708.htm

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Mar/Kapralova_piano_GP708.htm

https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2017/02/04/entering-the-world-of-kapralova/

https://www.naxos.com/Review/Detail/?catalogueid=GP708&languageid=EN

https://www.amazon.com/V%C3%ADtezslava-Kapralova-Complete-Piano-Works/dp/B01N9IGP15

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vítězslava Kaprálová (24 January 1915 – 16 June 1940) was a Czech composer and conductor of 20th-century classical music. Her teachers include Vilém Petrželka, Zdeněk Chalabala, Vítězslav Novák, Václav Talich, Bohuslav Martinů, Charles Munch, and Nadia Boulanger. Her husband was the Czech writer Jiří Mucha, whom she married two months before she died. Despite her untimely death, Kaprálová created an impressive body of work that was admired by Rafael Kubelík and Rudolf Firkušný. Her catalogue includes her highly regarded art songs and music for piano solo, as well as concertos and orchestral works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vítězslava Kaprálová

***

Giorgio Koukl (born 1953, Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a composer and pianist/harpsichordist. He studied with Rudolf Firkušný, Nikita Magaloff, Stanislav Neuhaus and Carlo Vidusso. Koukl is considered now as one of the major world specialists of Parisian music of the 1920s and of the "silver age" composers from Saint Petersburg. He has recorded the only existing complete set of solo piano music of Bohuslav Martinů for Naxos. He has also recorded the complete solo piano music of Alexander Tcherepnin, and several CDs dedicated to the music of Witold Lutoslawski, Alexandre Tansman, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Koukl

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!