IDAGIO | GODOWSKY: Piano Music, Vol. 10 - Walzesmasken 636943527627

Featuring

Konstantin Scherbakov
Leopold Godowsky

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Composer Biography

Godowsky hoped to study with Franz Liszt but, learning of Liszt's death, instead sought out Camille Saint-Saëns in Paris.

Performer Biography

Konstantin Scherbakov, the pianist on this album, won the first Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow in 1983 and was hailed as a modern Rachmaninov at the Lucerne Festival.

Composer Biography

Godowsky briefly studied with Ernst Rudorff, a pupil of Clara Schumann, at the Berlin Musikhochschule before making his US debut in 1884.

Composer Biography

Leopold Godowsky, the Polish-American pianist and composer, showed exceptional musical ability by age three and composed his first pieces at seven.

Composition History

Godowsky's Walzermasken: 24 Tonfantasien im Dreivierteltakt für Klavier (Waltz Masques: 24 Fantasies in Triple Time for Piano) was published on February 12, 1912, and dedicated to Dr. Wilhelm Stekel.

Composer Biography

Godowsky's performing career was cut short by a stroke in 1930, which left him unable to play the piano for the last eight years of his life.

Composer Biography

Camille Saint-Saëns was so impressed by Godowsky's playing that he offered to adopt him, provided Godowsky changed his name, a proposal Godowsky rejected.