Godowsky's studies employ various forms, including strict left-hand transcriptions, free transcriptions, cantus firmus arrangements, variations, and metamorphoses.
Instruments
This recording features a Steinway Model D piano from 1906, chosen for its warm and poetic sound, which the performer believes is ideal for Godowsky's music.
Recording & Production
The album's cover art, "Der Park," is by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Godowsky intended his Chopin studies to develop piano playing, expand the instrument's polyphonic and polyrhythmic capabilities, and widen its range of tone coloring.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Godowsky believed his studies would reveal "hidden beauties" in Chopin's original Études, even to less observant students, without altering the masterworks themselves.
Composer Biography
Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938) created 53 "studies upon studies" based on Chopin's Études, aiming to expand the piano's technical and musical possibilities.
Performer Biography
Emanuele Delucchi, the pianist on this album, specializes in Leopold Godowsky's music and is only the third pianist to perform all 54 of Godowsky's Chopin studies in concert.
You might also enjoy...
Ligeti: The 18 Etudes for Solo Piano
Rachmaninov: Nikolai Lugansky Plays / Études-Tableaux, Op. 33 & 39
Sorabji: 100 Transcendental Studies, Nos. 72-83
Alkan: 12 Etudes in All the Minor Keys, Op. 39 (Excerpts)
Godowsky: The Complete Studies on Chopin's Etudes
Rachmaninov: Etudes-Tableaux, Opp. 33 and 39
Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37a: VI. June. Barcarolle
Debussy Etudes
Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, Op. 37a: V. May. White Nights
Debussy: Études
Lyapunov: 12 études d'exécution transcendante, Op. 11
