Description

LEOPOLD GODOWSKY (SOSHLY, NEAR VILNIUS, LITHUANIA, FEBRUARY 13, 1870 – NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA, NOVEMBER 21, 1938)

The famous Polish-born American pianist, composer and pedagogue, Leopold Godowsky [Godowski], was born to Jewish parents in Sozły, near Vilna, in what was then Russian territory but is now part of Lithuania. He considered himself of Polish heritage. As a child, he received some lessons in basic piano playing and music theory; at age fourteen, he entered the Königliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, where he studied under Ernst Rudorff, but left after three months. Otherwise, he was self-taught. Leopold Godowsky’s career as a concert pianist, which eventually would take him to every continent except Australia, began at age ten. In 1886, after a tour of North America, he returned to Europe, intending to study with Franz Liszt in Weimar. Upon learning of F. Liszt’s death shortly after his return, he traveled instead to Paris, where he was befriended by the composer and pianist Camille Saint-Saëns, who enabled him to make the acquaintance of many leading French musicians. Saint-Saëns even proposed to adopt Godowsky if he would take his surname, an offer which Godowsky declined, much to the older man’s displeasure. Leopold Godowsky’s pedagogical activity began in 1890 at the New York College of Music. While in New York, he married Frieda Saxe and the next day became an American citizen. In 1894 he moved to the Broad Street Conservatory in Philadelphia, and again in 1895 to the Chicago Conservatory, where he headed the piano department. A successful European concert tour in 1900 landed him once again in Berlin, where he divided his time between performing and teaching. From 1909 to 1914 he taught master classes at the Vienna Academy of Music (Konservatorium Wien). The outbreak of World War I drove him back to New York, where his home was frequented by many distinguished performers and celebrities of that day. Sergei Rachmaninov, a particular friend, dedicated his Polka de W. R. to him. Godowsky was also a close friend of Einstein. After the war, Leopold Godowsky resumed touring, but a stroke he suffered on June 17, 1930, during a recording session in London, put an end to his public performances, and made it impossible for him to recoup the considerable financial loss he had suffered in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The only surviving recording from that historic session, unfortunately in very poor sound, is a rendition of the Scherzo No. 4, Op. 54 by Frédéric Chopin. The suicide of his younger son in 1932 and the death of his wife in 1933, combined with his despair over the deteriorating political situation in Europe (his plans for a “World Synod of Music and Musicians” and an “International Master Institute of Music” came to nothing) cast an even deeper shadow over his last years, and he stopped composing. He died of stomach cancer in New York on November 21, 1938. Leopold Godowsky was survived by his son Leopold Godowsky, Jr., the co-inventor (with Leopold Mannes) of color photography, as well as a violinist. He married George Gershwin’s younger sister, Frances Gershwin, thus continuing the musical line. He was also survived by his daughter, the actress Dagmar Godowsky (1896-1975), who during the 1920’s appeared as a co-lead in various Hollywood silent movies, including with Rudolph Valentino. She was a notorious vamp, a popular socialite, and wrote a humorous autobiography First Person Plural (New York 1958). As a composer, Leopold 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; transferring the technically difficult passages from the right hand to the left; transcribing the entire etude for left hand solo; or interweaving two etudes, with the left hand playing one and the right hand the other (as impossible as this seems).

TRACKLIST

1. Impromptu in A-flat, op. 29 (Chopin) Brunswick 2-6 June 1921; (x5748) 50009
2. Etude de concert No. 2 in F Minor, “La Leggierezza” (Liszt) Brunswick 9 January 1924; (x12246) unpublished
3. Nocturne in D-flat, op. 27, no. 2 (Chopin) Brunswick 7 October 1922; (x8859) 50042
4. Polonaise in C-sharp Minor, op. 26, no. 1 (Chopin) Brunswick 19 January 1924; (x12338) unpublished
5. Polonaise in A, op. 40, no. 1 (Chopin) Brunswick 16-19 May 1922; (x8053) 50015
6. Fantasy-Impromptu in C-sharp Minor, Op. 66 (Chopin) Brunswick 18 August 1925; (XE16165) 50070
7. Ballade No. 3 in A-flat, op. 47 [abridged] (Chopin) Brunswick 3 October 1922; (x8786) 50024
8. Waltz in C-sharp Minor, op. 64, no. 2 (Chopin) Brunswick 24 December 1920; (4727) 15018
9. Etude in G-flat, op. 10, no. 5, “Black Keys” (Chopin) Brunswick 19 May 1922; (8078) 15026
10. Etude in G-flat, op. 10, no. 5, “Black Keys” (Chopin) Brunswick 10 September 1926; (E20080) 15123
11. Waltz in A-flat, op. 34, no. 1 (Chopin) Brunswick 16 January 1924; (x12302) unpublished
12. Gnomenreigen (Liszt) Brunswick 1923; (01103) unpublished
13. Polonaise in A, op. 40, no. 1 (Chopin) Brunswick 8 February 1924; (x12492) unpublished
14. Berceuse in D-flat, op. 57 (Chopin) Brunswick 18 January 1924; (x12314) unpublished
15. Waltz in E-flat, op. 18, “Grande valse brillante” (Chopin) Brunswick 19 May 1922; (x8081) 50015
16. Polonaise in A-flat, op. 53 [abridged] (Chopin) Brunswick 2 October 1925; (XE16482) 50075
17. Gnomenreigen (Liszt) Brunswick 18 January 1924; (12323) unpublished
18. Polonaise in A-flat, op. 53 [abridged] (Chopin) Brunswick 3 October 1922; (x8787) 50024
19. Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor, op. 31 [abridged] (Chopin) Brunswick 18 January 1924; (x12311) unpublished
20. Etude in A-flat, op. 25, no. 1, “Aeolian Harp” (Chopin) Brunswick 6 February 1924; (x12469) unpublished
21. Chant Polonais No. 1, op. 74, no. 1 “The Maiden’s Wish” (Chopin) Brunswick 28 July 1920; (4051) unpublished
22. Fantasy-Impromptu in C-sharp Minor, op. 66 (Chopin) Brunswick 24 May 1921; (x5670) 50008
23. Prelude in C-sharp Minor, op. 3, no. 2 (Rachmaninoff) Brunswick 17 May 1922; (8057) 15026
24. Etude in G-flat, op. 25, no. 9, “Butterfly” (Chopin) Brunswick 19 May 1922; (8078) 15026
25. Prelude in C-sharp Minor, op. 3, no. 2 (Rachmaninoff) Brunswick 30 or 31 May 1921; (5726) unpublished
26. Chant Polonais No. 1, op. 74, no. 1, “The Maiden’s Wish” (Chopin-Liszt) Brunswick 7 October 1922; (8866) 15042
27. Etude in F, op. 25, no. 3 (Chopin) Brunswick 6 February 1924; (x12469) unpublished
28. Etude in G-flat, op. 25, no. 9, “Butterfly” (Chopin) Brunswick 10 September 1926; (E20080) 15123
29. Prelude in C-sharp Minor, op. 3, no. 2 (Rachmaninoff) Brunswick September 1926; (E20014) 15123
30. Rigoletto Paraphrase [abridged] Brunswick 4 September 1926; (XE20048) 50131