Piano Music Vol.2

Martinu, Bohuslav:
 Butterflies and Birds of Paradise
 Film en miniature, H.148
 Les bouquinistes du Quai Malaquais, H.319
 Puppets: Book 1, H.137
 Puppets: Book 2, H.116
 Puppets: Book 3, H.92
 Spring in the Garden, H.125
 The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon

The Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu was highly prolific, with over 400 works in many forms to his credit. In this second CD of his piano works, we have three sets of Puppets, written between 1912 and 1924. These and his Film in Miniature of 1925 reflect Martinu's fascination with popular culture.

The two sets of Garden Cycles from 1920 predate the composer's move to Paris. The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon is dedicated to Hsien-Ming Lee Tcherepnin, the Chinese-born pianist and that composer's wife, while Les Bouginistes is dedicated to his own wife Charlotte - both written in New York in 1948.

Martinu was an enormously prolific composer, who seemed often enough careless of the fate of what he had written. He tended to avoid revision of his work and in consequence the vast quantity of music he wrote is of uneven quality and varying style, although he came, in the 1930s, to make increasing use of Czech thematic material and to be identified with his native country, from which he remained an exile.

"Koukl’s performances…are very warmly recorded but this is a splendid disc despite that. Recommended."
Gramophone Magazine