This disc has already caused something
of a critical stir, being variously
a Gramophone Editors’s Choice, a BBC
Music Magazine Disc of the Month and
a CD of the Week on Radio 3’s CD Review.
This gave me a slightly keener anticipation
than usual and I wasn’t disappointed.
I have heard Berezovsky
live twice and have a number of his
discs. When on top form he really does
stand with the best and a clear line
to a previous generation of Russian
greats is evident. He can also be uneven,
and I remember being underwhelmed by,
of all things, a Rachmaninov 2 that
should have been meat and drink to a
pianist of Berezovsky’s stature and
intelligence. There is no doubt that
this Chopin/Godowsky recital finds him
at his imperious best, the phenomenal
technique and innate musical sensibilities
put at the service of music representing
the height of the Romantic piano.
The Godowsky transcriptions
have always aroused controversy but
I have to say Berezovsky’s sensible
decision to place his selection alongside
the originals is a masterstroke and
the first time, as far as I’m aware,
that this has been done on disc. It
gives the perfect opportunity to hear
Chopin pure and unadorned, followed
by what is best described as a metamorphosis
rather than a transcription. The opening
C major Étude is as good an illustration
as any. Chopin’s glorious inspiration,
a subtle marrying of poetry and arpeggio
exercise, is transformed into what Bryce
Morrison’s liner note calls ‘a massive
carillon of sound’, Godowsky turning
the arpeggiated figure into a seething
mass of contrary motion whilst still
managing to keep the melody and harmony
intact. This goes for all the transcriptions
and if you opt to follow a score of
the Chopin originals, you will be able
to follow it for the Godowsky re-workings.
It’s hard to point
to favourites but I’ve always loved
his cleverer inspirations, especially
where two Études are made into
one, as when Op.10 No.5 and Op.25 No.9
become the famous ‘Badinage’, a piece
that featured in Godowsky’s legendary
Berlin debut in 1905. Actually this
transcends mere clever and becomes truly
inspired, as do his equally famous (or
notorious) left hand studies. Godowsky
earned a few nicknames in his career,
one of them being ‘The Apostle of the
Left Hand’ and these studies, which
make up twenty two of the fifty three
transcriptions, re-defined piano technique
in the post-Liszt era. Berezovsky chooses
just two but revels in their complexities,
especially the ‘Revolutionary’ C minor,
whose fiery intricacies Godowsky transfers
to one hand with amazing ingenuity.
All these pieces were
written, of course, for Godowsky himself,
the ‘Pianist’s Pianist’ as he became
known. The New York Times’ chief critic
Harold C. Schoenberg, in his seminal
book ‘The Great Pianists’ devoted most
of a chapter to him and concluded ‘In
his day it was said he was composing
for a future generation of pianists.
If so, that generation has not yet arrived’.
Well, this was 1966 and now, thirty
years later, there are a growing number
of recordings. I grew up with Jorge
Bolet’s selection, played with supreme
grace and subtlety but slightly lacking
that last ounce of devil-may-care bravura.
The superhuman virtuosity evident on
Marc-André Hamelin’s Hyperion
set of the complete collection makes
it a must for Godowsky fans, but I have
to say that Berezovsky is easily his
equal in technical terms and does have
that invaluable trump card of juxtaposing
the originals – after all, hearing the
full set of transcriptions one after
another can lead to overkill. That said,
this Warner disc is only 54 minutes
(my only gripe) but of such quality
that I could have taken a few more.
It only remains to
be said that recording quality is excellent,
as is Bryce Morrison’s enthusiastic
note. The disc starts with brief, polite
applause and finishes with rapturous
cheering, something I would have been
actively joining in. Disc of the Month?
It just has to be!
Tony Haywood
Boris Berezovsky (piano) 
