Godowsky: Sonata; Passacaglia

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Perhaps it's true that Vladimir Horowitz claimed Leopold Godowsky's 1928 Passacaglia "impossible to play." That hasn't stopped brilliant, note-gobbling supervirtuosos from taking up its uncommon cause. The work treats the opening measure's of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony as a ground bass from which 44 variations and a gigantic fugue evolve. The increasingly elaborate, upholstered textures and harmonic purple prose often suggest Max Reger huffing and puffing his way through the Gershwin songbook, leaving little time to relax or breathe. Fortunately, Marc-André Hamelin channels his envious technique toward the most effective musical ends, taking more time with transitions than he did on his first recording of the work in 1988 and lingering just enough over lyrical passages. He unleashes intense heat in the demanding cadenza, yet keeps his scurrying fingers cool and controlled. Hamelin's unflinching proficiency and ability to handle the most taxing keyboard figurations with utter nonchalance brilliantly serve Godowsky's rambling, five-movement behemoth of a Piano Sonata. His only significant competition comes from Konstantin Scherbakov on Marco Polo, whose phrase inflections and dynamic surges tend to soften the music's grip. This is particularly telling in the Andante Cantabile, which contrasts with Hamelin's swifter, more fluid dispatch. Hamelin also keeps things moving by wisely forgoing Godowsky's superfluous repeats in the first and third movements, while Scherbakov observes them, to less convincing musical effect. It is churlish to say that no pianist need record these works again, yet future Godowsky players will have to practice to the bone in order to match, let alone surpass, Hamelin's reference versions. --Jed Distler

Amazon.com

Perhaps it's true that Vladimir Horowitz claimed Leopold Godowsky's 1928 Passacaglia "impossible to play." That hasn't stopped brilliant, note-gobbling supervirtuosos from taking up its uncommon cause. The work treats the opening measure's of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony as a ground bass from which 44 variations and a gigantic fugue evolve. The increasingly elaborate, upholstered textures and harmonic purple prose often suggest Max Reger huffing and puffing his way through the Gershwin songbook, leaving little time to relax or breathe. Fortunately, Marc-André Hamelin channels his envious technique toward the most effective musical ends, taking more time with transitions than he did on his first recording of the work in 1988 and lingering just enough over lyrical passages. He unleashes intense heat in the demanding cadenza, yet keeps his scurrying fingers cool and controlled. Hamelin's unflinching proficiency and ability to handle the most taxing keyboard figurations with utter nonchalance brilliantly serve Godowsky's rambling, five-movement behemoth of a Piano Sonata. His only significant competition comes from Konstantin Scherbakov on Marco Polo, whose phrase inflections and dynamic surges tend to soften the music's grip. This is particularly telling in the Andante Cantabile, which contrasts with Hamelin's swifter, more fluid dispatch. Hamelin also keeps things moving by wisely forgoing Godowsky's superfluous repeats in the first and third movements, while Scherbakov observes them, to less convincing musical effect. It is churlish to say that no pianist need record these works again, yet future Godowsky players will have to practice to the bone in order to match, let alone surpass, Hamelin's reference versions. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews:

Pure mastery.......2005-03-13

Marc-André Hamelin shows his extraordinary abilities again in these 2 monumental works by Godowsky. E minor sonata is a huge work with its 5 different movements, and especially look for how Mr. Hamelin builds up the sentimental melody in the 2nd movement marked "Andante cantabile". Coming to "Passacaglia" - the other work in this CD, famous for its horrendously difficult passages - you can say that pure magicianship is taking place by the help of the hands of Mr. Hamelin. A great CD and a good choice for those who love Godowsky's music.

Romantic Pianism at its Best.......2003-05-14

The secret is out: The Romantic piano genre remains the favorite of concert goers worldwide. From the concertos of Lizst, Rachmaninoff, Schumann and Brahms to the Symphonies of Bruckner, Mahler, Scriabin and Tchaivosky - these are what audiences yearn to hear. These two works by the piano viruoso Godowsky easily fit into this category and the only things keeping them from the concert stage are their difficulty and length.

The Sonata is by turns, robust, wild, beautiful and alluring - a perfect blend of the chromatic. What one notices about the Passacaglia is not only the virtuostic playing (which disproves the notion that it is "unplayable") but the almost hypnotic quality of the theme and its development. What one notices on second and third hearings is the skill and effort required for simply organizing the work - a trait that is all to often missing from even spectacular performances. The nuances, phrasing and dynamics are well conceived and executed.

What is remarkable about these works is that the composer was primarily a miniaturist known primarily for his rewrorkings of other composers's works. These two pieces prove that he moved effortlessly between both worlds and that this one is only waiting to be discovered.

Big ideas, big music, big performances.......2002-12-01

I had to live with this CD for several months before I felt sufficiently acquainted with this previously unfamiliar music to write this review. My pleasure in this music grew with each hearing.

The disc contains Godowsky's two largest pieces for piano. He is primarily remembered as a piano virtuoso and for his miniatures, particularly the transformations of Chopin's études (53 of them, based on the 26 Chopin pieces, 22 of them for left hand alone) already brilliantly recorded by Hamelin.

The Sonata was composed in the decade that also brought us the Dukas 'Grande Sonate' and the Berg Op. 1 Sonata, a period that some feel was the last flowering of the Romantic piano sonata. It is huge--five movements lasting almost 50 minutes. Two very large movements, the first and fifth, surround three gentler, dreamy, graceful movements, each containing luscious Schubertian melodies. The two end movements, though, are filled with serious, lush, even hyper-romantic stuff. The first movement, in fairly strict but extended sonata form, has six distinct themes that are combined, altered, recollected (as some of them are again in the final movement), all clothed in highly chromatic harmonies. Somehow Godowsky is able to use fistfuls of notes but still keep the contrapuntal lines going perceptibly. And certainly Hamelin's ability to take dense music of this sort and make intelligible MUSIC out of it is indispensable here. The last movement, all in slow tempo, starts with a short introduction followed by a delicious Larghetto--Godowsky also arranged it for violin and piano, and later for cello and piano--not a man to let a good idea go to waste), which is then followed by a huge fugue on the notes B-A-C-H, in turn followed by a touching funeral march. The piece ends quietly with the Dies irae slowly intoned in the bass followed by a short repetition of the funeral march.

The Passacaglia is based on a theme from Schubert's 'Unfinished' Symphony--not the familiar tune that every school child knows, but the tune in b minor that opens the first movement. Among pianists the piece is known as almost impossibly hard; in fact, Horowitz, after studying the piece for some time reportedly said 'It's hopeless. You need six hands to play it!' Abram Chasins, who heard Godowsky play the piece at a private gathering, wrote:

"This was sheer enchantment, both the work itself and Godowsky's pianism. It had the cool, colorful clarity of a stained-glass window. Although I was greatly moved and impressed by what I heard, Godowsky's effortless mastery made me unaware of the vastness of his pianistic feat that night." (quoted in Robert Rimm's "The Composer-Pianists")

And indeed, it is the case that the piece's horrendous difficulties are in the service of Godowsky's musical ideas, not simply there for show.

Needless to say, Marc-André Hamelin's performances of these two pieces are ne plus ultra. One hopes, on the one hand, that these recordings might encourage others to take up these pieces, but fears, on the other, that his spectacular musicianship will intimidate other pianists. We should be glad we have these recordings.

One personal note: I shall be hearing Hamelin in recital later this season. The program has not been announced. I am hoping that he includes one of these pieces on his program. But if he doesn't, at least I have this disc.

Extraordinary playing; and quite a find in terms of music.......2002-07-11

I have found this recording from Hamelin to be a most compelling disk. It is not simply Hamelin's magical pianism, but his rediscovery of the music of (yet another) neglected composer of a century ago.

This is the type of music that rewards attentive listening. The music is complex and lush and romantic, but unfamiliar. The disk should be listened to, in full, at least two or three times, both to learn the scale of the work and to appreciate Hamelin's command of it.

It's been said that Hamelin needs to return to the traditional repertoire, now that he has produced these outstanding recordings outside the mainstream literature. I say, au contraire! The last thing the world of recorded classical music needs is another Beethoven or Shubert sonata, another series of Bach keyboard works (sorry Murray Perahia) or yet another round of technically flawless, but risk-free Schumann or Chopin disks.

The best thing to have happened to recorded classical music in the past decade is Hamelin's ceaseless promotion of this neglected literature--and of course the wonderful musicality of his own piano-playing.

I can't recommend this disk too highly.

Great Pianist, questionable compositions........2002-03-31

After (re)recording some of the smaller scale works by Godowsky and setting a landmark in the history of piano playing with his recording of the complete set of the latter's elaborations on Chopin's etudes, Marc-Andre Hamelin (re)visits Leopold's most substantial original compositions.

This disc further highlights Hamelin's unlimited technical potential, his willingness to explore lesser-known works of the piano repertoire, and his commitment to give them the full five star treatment.

However, just like the best of cooks cannot be expected to create magic with inferior ingredients, the Sonata and Passacaglia don't offer Hamelin the material, upon which greatness can be build.

In his smaller scale works, in his song transcriptions and his Chopin elaborations, cases in which "structural strength" is of limited importance, or provided by the original composers, Godowsky proofs himself a very skilled arranger. A veritable "piano orchestrator". Yet, these original compositions highlight his shortcomings: lack of substantial thematic material, lack of harmonic development, and choosing a scale that is at complete odds with the limited substance of the contents.

Hamelin mentions Chopin's 3rd Sonata when discussing Godowsky's behemoth and the inclusion of the retrospect also points in the direction of Brahms' nr. 3. Yet, such comparisons just highlight the inherent weakness of Godowsky's Sonata. Leopold's only saving grace is that the rehashings of the thematic material allow him to highlight his significant coloristic talents from time to time.

This was my second encounter with the Passacaglia after I got Rian de Waal's cd in the early 1990s. De Waal is a highly underexposed pianist of great skill. Whereas Hamelin does everything humanly possible to squeeze the very last bit of supposed strength out of this mediocre theme with variations and fugue, de Waal chose to add his own brand of spice to enliven this drama a little. Both recordings have their individual strengths, that are the more remarkable when one considers the limited virtues of the material.[...] As a matter of fact, officinados of the 88 compare Godowsky's Passacaglia with Nielssen's equally obscure Chaconne and see whether you agree with the B-man that the Danish Symphonist's work is clearly the work of choice.

Tracks:

Ave Maria, D.839
Valse bluette (Air de ballet No. 2)
Chorus of Dervishes (No. 3, The Ruins of Athens, Op. 113)
La Capricieuse, Op. 17
Scherzo-Tarantelle, Op. 16
Hebrew Melody, Op. 33
La ronde des lutins (Scherzo fantastique, Op. 25)
Turkish March (No. 4, The Ruins of Athens, Op. 113)
Mtation, Op. 32
MalagueOp. 21, No. 1 (Danza Espa No. 1)
Concerto No. 2, Op. 22 In D Minor, II: Romance
Moto perpetuo, Op. 11
Sicilienne et Rigaudon (In The Style Of Francoeur)
Introduction and Tarantelle, Op. 43
Guitarre, Op. 45, No. 2
Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2 In E-Flat
Minuet (In the style of Porpora)

Tracks:

Caprice No. 20 In D - Paganini
On Wings Of Song, Op 34, No. 2 - Mendelssohn
Zapateado, Op 23, No. 2
Scherzo (No.2, Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op. 42) - Tchaikovsky
Valse (No. 2, Serenade, Op. 48) - Tchaikovsky
Slavonic Dance, Op. 46, No. 2 -- Danse slave
Widmung (No. 1, Myrthen, Op. 25) - Schumann
Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 -- Airs bohemiens
Symphonie espagnole, Op. 21: IV. Andante
Minuet (Divertimento No. 17, K.334) - Mozart
Serenade, Op. 4
Rondo ('Haffner' Serenade, K250) - Mozart
Caprice No. 13 In B-Flat
Concerto, Op. 64, In E Minor - Finale. Allegro molto vivace
Slavonic dance, Op. 72, No. 8 - Danse slave Arr. in G - Dvorak
Berceuse, Op. 28, No. 3
Valse (No.6, Raymonda, Op. 57) - Glazunov
Concerto, Op. 35, In D - II: Canzonetta

Tracks:

Concerto, Op. 28, In A Minor - II. Andante
Waltz In D (Impression No. 8)
Hungarian Dance No. 1 In G Minor
Snade mncolique, Op. 26
Vivace (Quartet, Op. 64, No. 5 'The Lark')
Hebrew Lullaby, Op. 35, No. 2
Andaluza (No. 5, Danzas Espas, Op. 37)
Grand Adagio (No. 4, Raymonda, Op. 57)
Slavonic Dance, Op. 72, No. 2 In E Minor
Nocturne, Op. 27, No. 2 (Arr. In D)
Hebrew Dance, Op. 35, No. 1
Stimmung, Op. 32, No. 1
Nocturne In F
The Gentle Maiden
Cort
Habanera, Op. 21, No. 2 (Danza Espa No. 2)
Hananaise, Op. 83
'Carmen' Fantasy, Op. 25

Customer Reviews:

a milestone in violin history, in a splendid reissue.......1999-09-30

pops and hisses abound on these reissues of Heifetz's first performances put to vinyl, but don't let the insufficiency in recording technology distract you from the glorious fiddling in this collection. at sixteen, heifetz commanded a technical facility that equals (some might argue that it betters) the best playing today. more significantly, this is highly intelligent playing, guided by a rare expressive spirit and a fully mature musical mind. this is the recording that put several pieces firmly out of the violin repertory out of doubts of ever being equalled, and is required listening for those who refuse to succumb to the temptation of mistaking production value for true musical content.