Chopin/Godowsky - Selected Studies (Bolet)

[@salt_cots]

It is during the early years of the 1930s that Jorge Bolet had some sessions with Leopold Godowsky. He would go up to New York when he had mastered a few of the composer's compositions. Jorge's teacher at the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia, David Saperton had arranged the connection. He would practise some of Godowsky’s fiendishly difficult works (few others of his contemporaries at Curtis were up to the task) and then play them to the composer. ​​‘Jorge’s scores of these pieces bore Godowsky’s markings in red crayon-the daunting “Passacaglia,” based on themes from Schubert’s “Unfinished” symphony; the “Fledermaus” and “Künstlerleben” symphonic metamorphoses (on famous waltzes by Johann Strauss II); the “Java Suite” (based upon Godowsky's trip to [modern] Indonesia.' (Albert McGrigor) Jorge listed these lessons for 1932-3 in a submission to Grove's Dictionary of Music; but they do not seem to have been systematic lessons. Le Monde Diplomatique, August 1986 had a feature on Jorge at the Festival de La Roque-d’Anthéron, in which he states: 'I never heard Godowsky play; he had had a heart attack ("un infarctus"), and no longer played the piano. He was not a pianist for the big halls, he was - if you like - an artist of the salon. There are salons where the ladies are elegant and where hands are gently kissed. It is of such ladies that we must think when we play Godowsky, not of dancers wearing après-ski boots.' Jorge's sessions with Godowsky came at a difficult time for the pianist/composer. Godowsky had suffered a debilitating stroke 17 June 1930 in London, while recording the E major scherzo of Chopin. His motor reflex system was irreparably impaired. Jeremy Nicholas in his biography of the pianist/composer has further appalling detail. In August 1932 his son Gordon had slashed his wrists and on 27 December he was found dead in his New York address, having gassed himself. Then Godowsky's wife Frieda died in the Ansonia Hotel; her funeral 6 December 1933 was attend by Kreisler, Heifetz, Bruno Walter; Josef Hofmann and Mischa Elman played. Godowsky was grief-stricken. After 42 years, the pillar of his life was gone. Even if he had been able to play in public, he would probably still have had to teach as well in order to supplement his income. Even Rachmaninoff, Hoffman and Horowitz were finding it difficult to earn substantial sums during the Depression. On 24 June 1934 (for six weeks), to earn money he set up a series of masterclasses in New York, as he had done the previous year in Los Angeles (August 1933). In May 1935 he was in Moscow and Leningrad at the invitation of Heinrich Neuhaus (1888-1964), his former pupil who had attended his masterclasses in Berlin and then in Vienna (1909-1914); he would himself later teach Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels and Radu Lupu, born in Galați, Romania (1945-2022). Only the most talented pupils would take part and all expenses would be paid. Godowsky was invited to visit the Kremlin - quite a distinction for foreigners in those days. But the situation in the country so upset him that he left as soon as possible declining an invitation to meet Stalin.

[@OzanFabienGuvener]

Great job! I'm familiar with Bolet's Godowsky/Chopin recordings, but I've missed a few. Saperton is also very good, but he has Godowsky's coolness, I prefer Bolet.

[@d_r_e_a_m_b_o_a_t]

Saperton is excellent, but I agree that he doesn’t project quite the same intensity as Bolet.