Giorgio Koukl facts for kids
Giorgio Koukl (born in 1953 in Prague, Czech Republic) is a talented composer, pianist, and music journalist. He lives in Lugano, a town in Ticino, which is an Italian-speaking part of southern Switzerland. His family has roots that go back to a noble family from Belarus.
Who is Giorgio Koukl?
Giorgio Koukl is a well-known musician who has dedicated his career to classical music. He is especially famous for playing and recording piano music.
His Musical Journey
Giorgio Koukl learned from some amazing piano teachers, including Rudolf Firkušný, Nikita Magaloff, Stanislav Neuhaus, and Carlo Vidusso. Through these studies, he first discovered the piano music of Bohuslav Martinů, a famous Czech composer.
A Specialist in Piano Music
Today, Koukl is considered one of the world's leading experts in piano music from the 1920s, especially from Paris, and from composers of the "silver age" in Saint Petersburg. He has made many important recordings.
His Recordings
One of his biggest achievements is recording all of Bohuslav Martinů's solo piano music. This was released as a 5-CD set between 2006 and 2009. He also recorded Martinů's complete vocal music (another 5-CD set) and all of Martinů's piano and orchestra works (a 2-CD set) for Naxos Records.
Koukl has also recorded the complete solo piano music of Alexander Tcherepnin across eight CDs. These recordings received high praise, being named "best CD of the month" four times and "best CD of the year" twice!
He has also recorded music by many other composers, including:
- Vítězslava Kaprálová
- Paul Le Flem (which won the French prize Diapason d'Or)
- Witold Lutoslawski (these were the first recordings of some of his works)
- Arthur Lourié (also first world recordings)
- Tibor Harsanyi (a project finished in 2021, all first world recordings)
- Carl Maria von Weber
- Johannes Brahms
- Alfons Szczerbiński
- Alexandre Tansman
Recently, he has been working on recording all the piano and two-piano works by Vittorio Rieti.
