Customer Reviews

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Leopold Godowsky was nicknamed the "budda of the piano". His music continues to amaze and infuriate people. His etudes on Chopin etudes are a case in point-he makes them harder! Not many pianists have been able to tackle his music-especially my favorite-the Passacaglia based on the opening theme of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. The sound could be better-it does not expand as much as it should-Hamelin's dynamic range is so wide that it is hard to contain. This is a minor quibble-until Hamelin finishes recording all of the Chopin Etudes, this will do just fine for now, especially for the Passacaglia.

I heard this recording when it first came out some ten years ago and came away wishing I had the complete Godowsky transcriptions of the Chopin etudes. Fortunately, Marc-Andre Hamelin has since recorded all of them, available on a set released not too long ago. I found a negative review of this CD (see "B-O-R-I-N-G") here on Amazon very odd and hopelessly illiterate and wrong-headed... "boring" it definitely is not! Godowsky's sense of coloration, registration, and key selection is exquisite, and does nothing to detract from Chopin's fundamental intentions. On the contrary, he does what every transcriber hopes to do...he offers a fresh and meaning-enhancing view of the original. Further, the tours-de-force of left-hand-only transcriptions leave you wondering how any human could possibly execute them in the was that Hamelin does. My conclusion: Fine works, breathtakingly performed by Hamelin, surely one of the greatest artists ever to touch a piano, and certainly one whom Godowsky would have regarded with awe.

I'm very happy to hear this wonderfull musi

Making Chopin's etudes harder isn't much of a claim to fame. The ultimate goal in playing a Chopin etude is to make beautiful music after, of course, mastering the notes. What Godowsky did is sort of like taking a filet mignon, chopping it up to make hamburger, and THEN adding Hamburger Helper to really finish it off. The result is really dull fancy tinkling of the typical 19th-century-bad-taste sort. Sure, there's great virtuosity in the playing, but where's the music? Why tinker with masterpieces? This album might be of interest if you care about the history of the changing fashions in piano music and piano playing, but if all you want is great music, stay away!