David Saperton plays Strauss/Godowsky "Künstlerleben" (1940 rec.)

[@pianoredux7516]

The greatest performance of this piece ever recorded bar none. The most clearly delineated polyphonically, phrasally, and in line, musical sense, and romantic sensibility. (The staggeringly clean, almost surgically precise technical execution is the least of it.) No other performance comes close. I've heard many. I agree with commenter emilgilels: one of the greatest piano recordings ever made.

[@emilgilels]

I think this is one of the greatest piano performances on record. Playing Godowsky's dense counterpoint with such clarity and control is technically astounding: it is MUCH more difficult than the torrents of notes (with the damper pedal down) of much of what passes for more-conventionally 'virtuosic' playing. I don't find his playing here cold at all, as some of the other commenters do. The casualness - insouciance, even - with which he tosses off the most difficult of passages is completely in keeping with the charming spirit of the original waltzes. His Chopin Etudes are also played in a similar way: little-to-no-pedal, great clarity. Again, an incredible display of virtuosity, though not always successful musically. Definitely worth listening to for the dazzling display of technique, though it can't be recommended as a first choice overall in that repertoire.

[@andrewharrison8975]

I agree.

[@joelkatz8729]

Sensational playing! Virtuosity with charm.... What style.

[@nickk8416]

Amazing! I've rarely heard playing like that.

[@GolfingPete60]

A fantastic, free style of piano playing that, sadly, no longer exists.

[@CharlieJudkins69]

Amazing player with great emotional sense, my current teacher Jeff Goldstein was a student of his, one of the many reasons I feel honored to study with him.

[@kevinpollockmusic3646]

Incredible voicing and technique. Saperton taught Sidney Foster, who taught both of my teachers...Artemesia Thevaos & Lydia Porro Milham

[@andrewharrison8975]

Sometime after Saperton recorded this piece, he recorded a number of the Chopin/Godowsky Etudes (some arranged for the left-hand alone) ; I believe that Saperton approved them for release, but world events overtook this artistic enterprise with bombing of Pearl Harbour, and Victor canceled their release and the metal masters were melted down to make shell casings!

[@hirakroychowdhury5663]

Schonberg didn't mention Georges Cziffra,Anne Fischer , Lili Kraus,Maria Greenberg,Grigory Shokolov,Yves Nat,Vlado Perlemutter along with many others in his book.Though his book is one of the finest ever written but it has its limitations.

[@emilgilels]

Schonberg's book was originally published in 1962; Grigory Sokolov didn't come to international attention until winning the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966 as a 16 year old, so there's no reason to hold it against Schonberg for not mentioning Sokolov! Maria Grinburg and other deserving Soviet pianists are also under-represented in the book, but again, I don't think we can hold it too much against Schonberg: at the time of his writing the book, they were still largely hidden behind the Iron Curtain. There was no KZbin back then full of hitherto obscure but still wonderful performances performances by these artists(!). :-)

[@hirakroychowdhury5663]

@@emilgilels agreed. But what about pianists like Cziffra,Lili Kraus,Yves Nat and Anne Fischer? They were very much in limelight then and deserved to be maintained.

[@gacharose1738]

Saperton was godowsky s son in law.

[@d60944]

I find his playing - well - a bit odd. As mentioned in the note, the playing is often lacking in a convincing communicative charm. I can't help but compare his rendition of the Fledermaus paraphrase with that of an utterly beguiling Moiseivitch or a Fiorentino. Saperton's polyphony is very clearly etched though. I think I favour his Chopin/Godowsky etudes the most, perhaps for the same reason that the slightly academic edge to the music itself can cope with less "interpretation".

[@kristianhansen6013]

Amazing pianist, but seems to get lost in the technical details missing the bigger picture and charm of the piece...

[@recoveringscot3587]

"The starting gun goes, and he's off, oh! he's cleared the first hurdle (Allegro MODERATO) and is powering down the straight....." As you say, utterly charmless and overfast. What this music needs is a musician, say, Shura Cherkassy, who was the incarnation of late-romantic charm. Perhaps the limitations of recording technology of the time required faster speeds, but then he should have abridged the piece, which would have been more acceptable.

[@gaiusflaminius4861]

I never liked Saperton. His playing is dull and boring however I think the composition is not very artful itself. I know that he dedicated himself to making the audience discover his father-in-law but the thing is Godowsky's music for all its brilliance and virtuosity doesn't posses the level of inspiration that one expects from great composers and therefore can't be responded to with enthusiasm sufficient to justify its existence (other than to use it to advance and perfect one's pianism as training material). For example, of his 50 Studies on Chopin's Etudes I can listen with pleasure only to maybe 4 or 5 at best, the rest sounds like a poker game: Apollonian principle is there, but where's Dionysian one?

[@andrewharrison8975]

I can’t agree.

[@globalc3849]

Playing for a bygone era. I so miss this type of playing a la Ignaz Friedman. It’s so alive and not hygienic and machine like as some note perfect pianists play like today.