Godowsky ,born on 13 February 1870,was a famed pianist, composer, and teach… Read Full Bio ↴Godowsky ,born on 13 February 1870,was a famed pianist, composer, and teacher. He has been described as the "Pianist of Pianists".
He became a naturalised American, but was born to Polish parents in Sozły, near Wilno, in what was then Russian territory but is now part of Lithuania. He considered himself of Polish heritage.
Godowsky had studied under Ernst Rudorff at the Berlin High School for Music,but left after three months. Otherwise, he was self-taught.
His career as a concert pianist, which eventually would take him to every continent except Australia, began at age ten.Godowsky made his debut in America on 7 December in Boston.
Later,moving to France to study with Liszt ( who unfortunately died a few days before Godowsky's arrival there), he played for Tchaikovsky, and could count among his acquaintances Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Amboise Thomas, Gabriel Fauré, Gabriel Pierné, Charles-Marie Widor and Leo Delibes.
He died of stomach cancer in New York on November 21, 1938.
As a composer, Godowsky has been best known for his paraphrases of piano pieces by other composers, which he enhanced with ingenious contrapuntal devices and rich chromatic harmonies. His most famous work in this genre is the 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes, in which he varies the already challenging originals by: introducing countermelodies.
He also transcribed for the piano a number of sonatas and partitas for solo violin and solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Piano Sonata, the Passacaglia, and Triakontameron are amongst other works of his that have become more well-known of recent times. The Passacaglia is based on a theme from Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony;it has acquired an undeserved reputation for difficulty.
"Godowsky's achievement is greater than that of the mere transcriber or arranger. He aimed higher and opened up new vistas for developing our pianistic mechanisms...When teachers, performers and students wake up to the possibilities and potentials of the Godowsky legacy, and when they apply themselves to its enormous challenge, we will begin once again to enjoy the music they make, to find recitals less of a duty and more of a joy to attend, and to share in the experience of expressivity through beautiful sounds produced with freedom and ease."
- Frank Cooper
He became a naturalised American, but was born to Polish parents in Sozły, near Wilno, in what was then Russian territory but is now part of Lithuania. He considered himself of Polish heritage.
Godowsky had studied under Ernst Rudorff at the Berlin High School for Music,but left after three months. Otherwise, he was self-taught.
His career as a concert pianist, which eventually would take him to every continent except Australia, began at age ten.Godowsky made his debut in America on 7 December in Boston.
Later,moving to France to study with Liszt ( who unfortunately died a few days before Godowsky's arrival there), he played for Tchaikovsky, and could count among his acquaintances Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Amboise Thomas, Gabriel Fauré, Gabriel Pierné, Charles-Marie Widor and Leo Delibes.
He died of stomach cancer in New York on November 21, 1938.
As a composer, Godowsky has been best known for his paraphrases of piano pieces by other composers, which he enhanced with ingenious contrapuntal devices and rich chromatic harmonies. His most famous work in this genre is the 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes, in which he varies the already challenging originals by: introducing countermelodies.
He also transcribed for the piano a number of sonatas and partitas for solo violin and solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Piano Sonata, the Passacaglia, and Triakontameron are amongst other works of his that have become more well-known of recent times. The Passacaglia is based on a theme from Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony;it has acquired an undeserved reputation for difficulty.
"Godowsky's achievement is greater than that of the mere transcriber or arranger. He aimed higher and opened up new vistas for developing our pianistic mechanisms...When teachers, performers and students wake up to the possibilities and potentials of the Godowsky legacy, and when they apply themselves to its enormous challenge, we will begin once again to enjoy the music they make, to find recitals less of a duty and more of a joy to attend, and to share in the experience of expressivity through beautiful sounds produced with freedom and ease."
- Frank Cooper
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Waltz in D-Flat Major Op. 64 No. 1 : Concert Transcription
Leopold Godowsky Lyrics
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The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
@tackontitan
Those inner chromatic melodies are so pleasing to my ears. Godowsky's grasp of counterpoint is as good as Bach's.
@TheExarion
Oh, just you fucking wait until the Bach-Godowsky transcriptions show up on this channel. I've never had more fun listening to piano in my life.
@krimkara27
@@TheExarion yes please and thank you
@TheExarion
@@krimkara27 They’re already on my channel!!
@MrDowntemp0
I was introduced to Godowsky by his famous interpretations of Chopin's Etudes. But I'm so glad that you're uploading other arrangements he's done for other Chopin pieces. I had no idea these were out there. Did he arrange any of the preludes or nocturnes too?
@TheExarion
The only other Chopin arrangement that Godowsky made (according to IMSLP; I don't really have the time to look deeper than that right now) is Chopin's Rondo Op.16, which I won't be uploading to this channel any time soon.
Complete list of Godowsky's arrangements here: https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Godowsky,_Leopold/Arranger
@LukeFaulkner
Thanks for releasing this! The only other version I found on YT was an excellent performance by Berezovsky but with poor audio quality. This is perfect :)
@TheExarion
It was really lucky that I found Bolet's studio audios when I did :) Also, here's another cleaner audio of Berezovsky's performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq7jUD8_R8M
@LukeFaulkner
@@TheExarion Thanks so much for this! :)
@jerry_moo
Bolet's voicing is incredible, how does one not pedal-blur Godowsky??