denny Study & Teaching books

This is a video of Léopold Godowsky's diabolically difficult transcription of Frédéric Chopin's étude Opus 10 #1, for the left hand alone, performed by pianist Ivan Ilić. The Composer Léopold Godowsky was among the most famous performers of his generation, and his technical facility was considered to be unequaled among his peers. As a result, his motives for writing the études are frequently misunderstood: many listeners mistakenly see these pieces as musical vehicles for showing off. However, there is an overwhelming amount of documentation that suggests that Godowsky was not a showman but a perfectionist who created these works for his own self-improvement. In one of his letters he laments: "Music [...] is a life of sacrifice, hardship, struggle, misunderstanding and misery. Sensationalism and charlatanism hold the center of the stage. Idealism, altruism, and self-effacement in art, as in life, result in misunderstanding and inappreciation, in a vain fight against selfishness, ignorance, and brutality." [Excerpt from "Godowsky - The Pianists' Pianist," an outstanding biography by Jeremy Nicholas] The most convincing evidence for Godowsky's altruistic, laudable motives is the music itself: its refinement of detail, reminiscent of the writing of Johannes Brahms on the page, is the work of a patient and exacting master. Just as Godowsky's performing and teaching aesthetics were unequivocally Apollonian, the most effective interpretations of his works are sober and elegant ...