The second volume in Giogio 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.

Giorgio Koukl is a pianist/harpsichordist and composer. He studied in Prague at the state music school and conservatory before continuing his studies at the conservatories of both 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.

‘An exciting composer, exciting repertoire, marvellously performed. Recording, layout and packaging are equally flawless. What can one other say than: Recommended.’ – Klassik.com on Vol.1 (GP737)