Scott Morrison ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>The party piece of all party pieces would be the one where he combines the
>2 g flat major etudes (one from Op. 10, one from Op. 25).  Cute, clever,
>admirable, jaw-dropping.  But again, he didn't just do something clever.
>He wrote music!

It's a pity that he either didn't write (or it's been lost) his projected
study combining three of the four A minor etudes.

However, nature abhorring a vacuum and all that, Hamelin himself has
written it...he certainly hasn't recorded and I don't know how often he's
played it.  I have a video of one of his 1996 Merkin Hall recitals in
which, after over 30 minutes of encores, he finally admits that he can't
put it off any longer.

It's hard to judge Hamelin's achievement on this performance, coming as it
did after a recital in which he played the Busoni arrangement of Bach's St.
Anne Prelude & Fugue, half a dozen Godowsky eteduts and the Alkan Concerto,
plus, as I said, all those encores (including more Godowsky).

It did, however, look almost completely impossible even for him to play.

>This Godowsky needs to be looked into as a composer, I think.

Agreed.  And you've chosen your moment well, as the first ever complete
recording of his Java Suite (I'm surprised Sun haven't picked this up...)
by Indonesian (appropriately) pianist Esther Budiardjo on ProPiano
PPR224629.  I've only listened once so far, but it seems pretty good and
this is a major work, lasting around 53 minutes.

AFAIK his longest original work is the Passacaglia, based on the opening
bars of Schubert's Unfinished, a hugely difficult work which Horowitz
allegedly practsied for a year before giving up in disgust, claiming that
it required "six hands" to play.

Hamelin's CBC Musica Viva recital, uninspiringly recorded as it is,
includes a bunch of the etudes (completely superseded by his Hyperion set),
some Schubert arrangements, bits of the Java Suite (haven't compared to EB
yet) and the Passacaglia.

Rian De Waal's Hyperion CD also includes the Passacaglia (also well
played), more Schubert arrangements, Alt Wien (at one time Godowsky's most
- only? - popular piece).

And two of his staggering "contrapuntal arrangements", Weber's Invitation
to the Dance and Strauss Kuntslerleben.

Godowsky's contrapuntal skills and his inspired reworkings of the Weber
and Strauss are reason enough for having the de Waal CD (CDA66496).

I've got other Godowsky Strauss metamorphoses, paraphrases etc by various
pianist scattered over recital discs (Earl Wild, Leon Fleisher spring to
mind) and eagerly acquire any I find.

I wish someone (Hamelin?) would record the entire canon, as I think they
contain music as fine as the studies after Chopin.

Finally, a reminder (for those who haven't been able to read teh liner
note to the Hamelin set): a large number (23? can't recall offhand) off
the studies are for the left hand alone; Godowsky felt that there wasn't
enough for the left hand to do in the originals (and it was Wagner who
called Chopin "a composer for the right hand"), hence the inversion studies
(e.g.  one after Op.10 No.5, the "Butterfly", which assigns the block
chords to the right hand and all the filigree stuff to the left) and the
left hand only studies.

I believe Godowsky was familiar with Alkan's left hand music (e.g.
Op.76 No.2) but the range of effects he is capable of creating with them
is truly astonishing - as witness the fact that the only version after
the Revolutionary Etude (Op.10 No.12 IIRC) is for the left hand.  And
amazing it is.

It is well-established that Ravel made a special study of Godowsky's
studies before composing his left hand concerto.

Deryk Barker
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