The Godowsky Edition - Volume 7
Isaac ALBENIZ (1860-1909)
Triana from Iberia, Book II, No. 3 (concert arrangement) (transcribed Godowsky
1920s) [5:10]
Tango in D, Op. 165 No. 2 (concert version) (transcribed Godowsky 1920s) [2:57]
Georges BIZET (1838-1875)
Adagietto from L'Arlésienne (transcribed Godowsky 1920s) [1:49]
Carl BOHM (1844-1920)
Calm As The Night (Still wie die Nacht) Op.326 No.27 (transcribed Godowsky
1920s) [3:44]
Fritz KREISLER (1875-1962)
Rondino on a theme by Beethoven (transcribed Godowsky 1916) [3:59]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835-1921)
The Swan (transcribed Godowsky 1920s) [2:38]
Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)
Ständchen (Serenade), Op. 17 No. 2 (transcribed Godowsky 1920s) [2:51]
Leopold GODOWSKY (1870-1938)
Symphonische Metamorphosen Johann Strauss'cher Themen, Drei Walzer-paraphrasen
für das Pianoforte zum Concert Vortrag (1912): Künstlerleben
[16:38]; Die Fledermaus [12:14]; Wein, Weib und Gesang [13:17]
Carlo Grante (piano)
rec. Studio Glanzing, Vienna and Sla Civica di Ponte San Nicolò, Padova,
undated [2011]
MUSIC & ARTS CD-1259 [65:37]
The seventh volume in Carlo Grante’s ‘Godowsky Edition’
ranges from the three extensive and pyrotechnic Johann Strauss transcriptions
to the gentle evocations of Saint-Saëns’ Swan. They show Godowsky
writing on both the grandest and most intimate of scales, therefore, in a
programme that keeps its powder dry until unleashing the Strauss trio as the
final pieces in the ten-track programme.
Grante’s immersion in Godowsky’s muse is by now an extensive as
anyone alive, I should think. One can take for granted thorough preparation
and a confident awareness of stylistic and technical niceties. He takes two
of Godowsky’s Albéniz transcriptions, Triana from the
second book of Iberia, and the Tango in D and plays them with delicious awareness
of their buoyant warmth. The rhythmic snap of Triana is especially
commendable, so too its textual clarity, and the tastefully refined way Grante
brings it to life. Most transcriptions of the Tango cede to Kreisler’s
for the violin, but Godowsky’s purely pianistic reworking is faithful
and only modestly elaborate.
There follows a lovely sequence of equally modestly sized refashionings, music
that is wittily and warmly embellished but not smothered. The Adagietto
from L'Arlésienne is delightfully done and Karl Böhm’s
lovely song Still wie die Nacht receives a suitably beautiful transcription.
This is one of the highlights of the disc and shows Grante at his most plangent
and sensitive. Another is The Swan, dappled and draped with refinement
and great warmth by Godowsky, and pianist, alike. Kreisler does in fact appear
but under his own name in the shape of his Rondino on a theme by Beethoven,
transcribed (or at least published) in 1916, and played with the necessary
wit here. Godowsky’s rippling carapace adds textual allure to Richard
Strauss’s Ständchen.
The three big Johann Strauss metamorphoses, or paraphrases, or arrangements
- the last of which seems an inadequate word in the circumstances - present
considerable demands on the performer. Künstlerleben is extremely
tough and Grante proves a commendable guide. However if critical stakes are
to be raised, Marc-André Hamelin [Hyperion CDA67626] plays it with
an even greater sense of fantasy, colour, whip-crack virtuosity and bravura.
He is noticeably quicker than Grante in all three of these Strauss transcriptions
and this increased adrenalin ensures that his performances are now the contemporary
marker in this repertoire. Grante sounds just a touch heavy, especially in
Die Fledermaus, after such galvanising drive.
Nevertheless collectors of this unfurling series will find very much to their
liking here.
Jonathan Woolf
Collectors of this unfurling series will find very much to their liking here.