"If there were specific historical periods where music was really fascinating, they would be the beginning of 20th century in St. Petersburg, the 1930s in Paris and during the Second World War in the USA. Alexander Tcherepnin was present during all three of them. His reaction to all these inputs was personal, highly original and enriching.

It is exactly this mixture that makes my work with his music so rewarding. Tcherepnin needs to be better known and I hope this CD will contribute to that." – Giorgio Koukl

From an artistic family, whose own father had been a pupil of Rimsky–Korsakov, Russian composer, pianist and conductor Alexander Tcherepnin had written music from a very young age. An exile from his native country in 1921, he was later based in Paris and the United States where he continued to write music in every genre.

Concentrating on his early piano works, this disc shows how Alexander Tcherepnin’s mastery of the miniature was allied to huge imagination. The Pieces sans titres, Op.7 are richly characterised gems and the Petite Suite, Op.6 teems with resourceful vitality. By the time of Message, Op 39, composed in 1926, and one of his masterpieces, he had developed an arrestingly dramatic approach to rhythm.

PeTITe SuITe, oP. 6 (09:30)
5 I. Marche (01:23)
6 II. Chant sans paroles (01:52)
7 III. Berceuse (01:47)
8 IV. Scherzo (02:04)
9 V. Badinage (00:50)
10 VI. Humoresque (01:34)

ToCCATA no. 1, oP. 1 * (05:34)

noCTurne no. 1, oP. 2, no. 1 * (03:23)

dAnCe no. 1, oP. 2, no. 2 * (03:39)

noCTurne no. 2, oP. 8, no. 1 * (03:55)

SCHerzo, oP. 3 (03:36)

meSSAGe, oP. 39 * (09:35)

* World Première Recording

TOTAL TIME: 62:54

Giorgio Koukl is a pianist/harpsichordist and composer who lives in Lugano, in the Italian–speaking canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland. He was born in Prague in 1953, and studied there at the State Music School and Conservatory. In 1968 he moved to Switzerland and continued his studies at both the Conservatories of Zürich and Milan. While studying there he took part in the master–classes of Nikita Magalov, Jacques Février and Stanislaus Neuhaus, and with Rudolf Firkušný, friend and advocate of Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. Through Firkušný, Koukl first encountered Martinů’s music, prompting him to search out his compatriot’s solo piano works. Since then he has developed these into an important part of his concert repertoire and is now considered as one of the world’s leading interpreters of Martinů’s piano music, having recorded that composer’s complete solo piano music, together with a disc of Martinů’s vocal music and two discs of his piano concertos, all for Naxos. As a logical continuation of this work, and a nod to his own maternal Russian ancestry, Koukl has now tackled the complete solo piano works of Alexander Tcherepnin, a Russian composer who belonged to the same Parisian group of composers as Martinů, along with with Honegger, Harsányi, Beck and Mihalovici, a group which Albert Roussel referred to as "Les Constructeurs."

http://www.koukl.com

"Koukl has the technical authority for these works. His playing gives off a sense of being at ease, with the ability to extend himself as needed." –Barry Brenesal, Fanfare

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