The Godowsky Renaissance Continues
J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 05/12/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For many years the piano compositions of Polish-American pianist/composer Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938) languished in obscurity, rarely played or recorded. There was always interest among cognoscenti and among pianists who loved exploring corners of the modern piano repertoire. But there it remained until an upsurge of recordings and performances began perhaps fifteen or twenty years ago. There are now three recordings of his Chopin etude recompositions (and that's what they are: recompositions), prime among which is that of Marc-André Hamelin. And his superb Passacaglia and the Sonata have also been recorded. Rather quietly Naxos's house virtuoso, Konstantin Scherbakov, has been recording what appears to be a complete traversal of the piano works; this CD is Volume 8. And it contains some of the most interesting music to date: the Java Suite (originally entitled 'Phonorama: Tonal Journey for the Pianoforte') and the delectable 'Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Johann Strauss II -- No. 3: Wine, Women and Song'. The latter has been recorded a number of times, the former has only been recorded once, as far as I know, by Esther Budiardjo on ProPiano, a recording I've not heard.
For me by far the most interesting thing here is the Java Suite, an almost 50 minute set of twelve short character pieces whose inspiration was that of the music of the Indonesian island, Java. Written in 1925, Godowsky's suite must have seemed exotic to early listeners. The first piece 'Gamelan' may very well have introduced that word and the sound of gamelan-style music to many westerners. (Of course, French composers in particular had been influenced by this sort of music back in 1889 when a Javanese gamelan played at the Paris World's Fair, and indeed it is notable that much of Godowsky's music necessarily sounds like similar works by Debussy.) Technically much of Godowsky's Java Suite makes use of both whole-tone and pentatonic scales. Thus, even to the untrained ear, the music sounds Eastern.
Among the more striking effects in the Java Suite are the heavily perfumed atmosphere of 'The Gardens of Buitenzorg' ('Buitenzorg' means 'Sans Souci'), the quick repeated-note fourths and fifths of 'Chattering Monkeys at the Sacred Lake of Wendit', the use of Debussyan chords of the ninth in 'Boro Budur in Moonlight' and the stylized gestures of 'A Court Pageant in Solo'. I found myself going back again and again to hear this suite.
Godowsky's delightfully lilting pianistic transformation of Johann Strauss II's 'Wine, Women and Song' is virtuosic in the extreme. Scherbakov tosses it off as if it weren't and stylishly at that. Lucky us.
For anyone even more than a little interested in Godowsky's music, this release is a must. And for those who enjoy exploring unfamiliar 20th-century piano music but who don't cotton to extreme modernism, this release is self-recommending. It should be noted that the formerly full-price Marco Polo label is now selling its new releases at budget price.
Scott Morrison"
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1