Giorgio Koukl

Pianist Giorgio Koukl has a wide repertory of Czech and non-Czech music but is best known for his recordings of <a href="spotify:artist:2cN9SgfyZo6l6TijoewUaZ">Martinů</a>'s keyboard music. He has also recorded many works by <a href="spotify:artist:5sxqkehMzCuzt4F9nBytun">Alexander Tcherepnin</a> and Tibor Harsányi.

Koukl was born in Prague, then in Czechoslovakia, in 1953. His family was musical, and he was enrolled in classes at the Prague Conservatory. During the difficult year of 1968, Koukl managed to leave Czechoslovakia for Switzerland, where he studied at the Zurich Conservatory. He also attended the Milan Conservatory in Northern Italy, and for much of his life, he has lived in the Italian-speaking Swiss city of Lugano. He studied or attended master classes with <a href="spotify:artist:5F6RXixH6tg6wxOoZblmhS">Nikita Magaloff</a>, Jacques Février, Stanislas Neuhaus, and <a href="spotify:artist:0cM8NUhUJpM5F1q96tndP7">Rudolf Firkušný</a>. The latter, an associate of <a href="spotify:artist:2cN9SgfyZo6l6TijoewUaZ">Martinů</a>, introduced the young pianist to his music, and Koukl would focus on <a href="spotify:artist:2cN9SgfyZo6l6TijoewUaZ">Martinů</a> for the first part of his career. He began a cycle of <a href="spotify:artist:2cN9SgfyZo6l6TijoewUaZ">Martinů</a>'s music on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a> label in the late '90s; <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a> continued to reissue these recordings in the 2000s decade. Koukl won the Tolosa Competition in Spain, the Viotti International Competition in Italy, and the Aliènor Competition in Washington, D.C., and he was heard on radio broadcasts in several countries.

Koukl has appeared with various orchestras in leading European venues, but it was perhaps his recording career that propelled him to greater popularity. That career has two unusual features. One is his broad repertory, which includes not only <a href="spotify:artist:2cN9SgfyZo6l6TijoewUaZ">Martinů</a> but also lesser-known music by Czech composers, including <a href="spotify:artist:6wEimu9Okp11rTY8nbbTtR">Josef Mysliveček</a>, along with works by <a href="spotify:artist:6n7nd5iceYpXVwcx8VPpxF">Dvorák</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:25Eab1kIY1gh0Yo1oV04G4">Smetana</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0dzul8iKQZ52HPrqk41Ij6">Vanhal</a>, among others. The other is Koukl's own work as a composer, which includes works such as the ballet Pandoras and a Te Deum for soloists, chorus, and orchestra. Some of his works are for harpsichord, and some of these were collected on the successful 2002 album Drops of Light on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Gasparo+Records%22">Gasparo Records</a> label. Koukl devoted a series of recordings to <a href="spotify:artist:5sxqkehMzCuzt4F9nBytun">Tcherepnin</a>'s piano music on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Grand+Piano%22">Grand Piano</a> label in the 2010s, and he later devoted several albums to Harsányi and, in 2017, recorded the complete piano works of Vitezslava Kaprálova for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Grand+Piano%22">Grand Piano</a>. By the time Koukl, with Virginia Rossetti, released two albums of piano music by <a href="spotify:artist:6ekogq2xlKu2D0KGX8wMTw">Vittorio Rieti</a> in 2023 and 2024, his recording catalog comprised more than 40 albums. ~ James Manheim, Rovi