my notes on

Godowsky: The Pianists' Pianist

By Jeremy Nicholas




Godowsky: Study No. 36: Chopin Etude Op. 25, No. 6 in g# (first to be composed)
Marc-Andre Hamelin, pianist

Go to notes for Chapter 1
Go to notes for Chapter 2
Go to notes for Chapter 4

1890 - 1899

Chapter 3 - Chicago

20
10/90 left for US. NYT announced arrival in amusements column: young Russian. 20 years old. student of SS." twice spelled Godowski.

WJ Henderson: cuibono?. Lord Balfour home for Victoria party gave entree to Vanderbilts in NY. 1 of richest six. LG greeted with cold disdain. months later, signed contract to play at V mansion. LG: must go thru my business rep. Not picked up, no ride home, not a guest at party. ten days later call V office to get check. Next forty years, never played at a social function.

21
4/24/1891 six months in US, Carnegie Hall debut, 2 weeks before official opening. 4/30 married Frieda Saxe, next day citizenship. Taught. Marked contrast between teacher and performer. first: NY School for Music. one week: $10.50. Appointed head of piano dept. Gilbert Raynolds Combs's Broad Street Conservatory in Philadelphi. 1893: recitals more frequent. NMT convention in St. Louis.

Receives invitation to head piano dept. at Chicago Conservatory. I'll stop by on my way to St. Louis. William H. Sherwood current head, pupil of Kullac and Liszt. Wants leave of abscence. LG vs. MacDowell, 9 years older. LG chosen with only 3 years teaching experience. MacDowell would have been a bad choice.

LG given two year contract, he, Frieda and Vanita, born in 1894, top floor apt. on Drexel Blvd, Chicago. Sherwood came back. LG offered to rescind but students liked him, wanted LG; Sherwood resigned. LG Inspired loyalty and affection. Not yet 25, viewed as an oracle. brought individual approach to all musical matters, no preconceptions or "conservatoire" training.

Familiar with all writings on technique. Adolf Kullak wrote The Art of Touch (the best book on music LG ever read). Eclectic approach.

"Puzzled with why he plays well after 12 to 14 hours of practicing and 2 hour rest. He realized he let his exhausted arms hang down with their own weight, no effort to hold them up. Playing with relaxed arm weight: this was not tiring. Anton Rubinstein: played with relaxed weight but unable to explain it. LG: Weight, relaxation and economy of motion are the foundation stones of technique, of interpretation and mechanism in piano playing. 90 percent of LG's playing is based on the weight principle, he taught it scientifically as early as 1892, age 22."

LG instilled this in young students but cautious re: hard rules like a method. Preservation of personality in the interpretive artist. Best teachers are those that put thought to this. Auer was successful because of this. Encourages students to bring out what's inside.

Carreno developed similar theories by watching Anton Rubinstein practice, LG first great pianist to consciously adopt and then teach the principle of weight release as most efficient way of playing. Carreno, no traditional background, a few lessons with Gottschalk, Mathias in Paris, at 13 turned down lessons with Liszt.

LG developed mentality that responds to challenges and reaching solution logically. Now the third facet of career starts: composition.

20s
Early 1890s, began to make arrangements of piano music, not as Liszt transcribing orchestral pieces, but piano music. Earliest are Chopin Rondo Op. 16, Grand Valse brilliante in Eb, Op. 18, Henselt's Etude Caracteristique Op. 2, No. 6 (Si j'etaise oiseaux). Approach: an absorption with polyphony, the simultaneous interweaving of different themes.

23-44
Set of 53 reworkings of 26 of 27 Chopin etudes. written between 1893 and 1914, basis of reputation as an important composer of the piano. 17 not published. Studies on studies. LG attacked, praised, dismissed, applauded, merits criticized, right to exist debated, doesn't deserve to be heard, Niagaras of abuse.. Most elaborate comprehensive collection of piano studies in the lit of piano. Had critics read the published forward, they would have understood.

9 months before death LG wrote: "Pedagogic Experiments At The Two Extremes of Pianism": creative people are involved and complicated in youth, older they grow the simpler they become. 2 examples with LG: simplest piano creations 46 Miniatures, written at age 47, ten of Chopin studies finished in 23rd year. Miniatures: provide short simple form compositions equalling works heard in conccerts; whereas Chopin studies aimed at transcendental heights of pianism.

23
June 1893 to Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. created great excitement; brother-in-law/fiancee decide to honeymoon at Chicago Expo. LG was supposed to go but didn't. Battle Creek MI train accident brother-in-law/fiancee killed. LG practicing g# Chopin etude. Op25/6.

To take mind off tragedy, LG evolved a more practical fingering for double thirds. Found entirely new succession of fingers, more practical. transposed it to LH; same fingering could be applied and more so. Then experimented with other etudes. transcribed black key Op10/5, 6ths Op25/8, wide arpeggios C 10/1 studies. The more he transcribed, the more LG discovered was as adaptable to technical as RH. LH is easiest to develop.

Justifying rights to use another's works, as a foundation for paraphrases etc. depends on intention, nature and quality of the work of the transgressor. Thought it wisest to build upon their solid and invulnerable foundation to further the art of pianoforte playing. Condemned any artist for taking liberties with works of any great composer. Artists said LG's reworkings revealed hidden beauties of original studies.

methods of transformation are varied, wide range of style and structure. 22 for LH alone, 7 versions of black key etude.

Methods of transformation a. strict transcriptions (original adapted to LH) b. free transcription c. inversions d. free variations on original e. juxtapositions of 2 etudes LHblack key 10/5-RHbutterfly 25/9 f. cantus firmus: original but RH transferred to LH while RH has counterpoint g. metamorphoses: entire character design/rhythm of original altered but retaining architecture.

Harold Schonberg: probably the most impossibly difficult things ever written for the piano. fantastic exercises that push piano technique to heights undreamed of, even by Liszt.

(36)
Contrapuntal complexities frighten most pianists justifiably so. 1906: critic Arthur Abell got the point: they increase LH's capabilities to astonishing degree. Inspired Blumenfeld and Scriabin to compose for LH.

24
critic James Huneker:1894: LG g# version first one published and performed in public. musically and immensely difficult. doesn't tax the fingers as much as the a minor one. Hat's off gentlemen , a tornado. Badinage brother and sister. Are they available? certainly. predicts will be in curriculum in 10 years. Plato is parsed in schoolroom, Beethoven taught in conservatories, why worry about LG's attitude: he is writing for the next generation of Rosenthals.

27
1st performance of LG studies in NYC was inauspicious. critic FW Reisberg Musical Courier: February 1897, Knabe Hall, Presbyterian Building 5th Ave/21st. 12 people gathered, snow drifts, horse driven cabs hard to get, cable cars hindered. 9pm, Manager Mayer of Knabe spoke to 12, asking them into warerooms, seated around piano, LG gave recital. boundless enthusiasm. At end, MM invited 12 to Logerot's french restaurant, SW corner of 5th and 18th, hilarious time, feast.

late teens
End of 1890s, LG hard work paid off. played all over US and Canada. reputation as teacher established. attracted solid if unspectacular admiration because of Chopin studies. Rumors of creativity circulated.

Paderewski, considered next in line after Liszt and Rubinstein. fee in Chicago $7382 4 concerts: $21000. 11 years older than LG. IP wanted to meet LG. LG invited IP to dinner in Chicago. IP requested no other guests to be invited except each can bring 1 friend. LG chose MA. Afternoon spent at piano, IP interested in Chopin eturdes. LG played entire set with comments. IP aroused greatly. admiration grew. especially 25/8 in Db, LG dedicated it to IP that afternoon. IP offered to write a preface and express his approval.

LG had many friends in Chicago. All welcome at LG's home. Hospitality was just as famous as his playing. First regulars - anyone who contributed to 20th century culture - 2 professors from U of Chicago: biologist Jacques Loeb and physicist Albert Michelson. LG fascinated with scientific minds. complimented his own musical preoccupation. acquired breadth of scientific knowledge. so he became more than a pianist. Mostly musicians visited: Alexander Siloti, Ernst von Dohnanyi age 22, Teresa Carreno, Vladimir de Pachmann (long life friendship with LG), Theodore Thomas, conductor, very influential, founded Chicago Symphony, aroused IP's curiosity re: LG.

26
1897: turning point in LG's career. TT invited LG to play with CSTchaikowsky #1: 1/15-16/97. TT allowed LG an encore: Scherzo SS concerto g. TT invited LG to open a series of 6 chamber music concerts, where 6 leading Chicago pianists would join string quartet for one concerted number. After first one, TT sent for manager of CS and told him to contract LG for all 6.

LG terms of tuition: 10 weeks private lessons: 2 @ week of 30': $40 10 weeks private lessons: 1 @ week of hour: $37 1 30' lesson: $20 40 weeks, 2 30' lessons @ week: $160 40 weeks 1 1 hour per @ week: $150 40 weeks 30' @ week: $80 special offer: 2 lessons @ week of 30' or one lesson @ week hour for 40 weeks who pay in advance get season ticket to 24 CS concerts, valued from $15 to $20. Option for above or discount of 10%.

TT/LG conversation after rehearsal with CS. MA: TT advised LG to go to Europe and don't vegitate in Chicago.

26
after 1/21/1897 Tchaikowsky, played recital: Beethoven 32 variations, Chopin Sonata #2, Impromtpu in F#, Scherzo c#, Weber-Tausig Invitation to the Dance. 3 weeks later at Chicago Conservatory, played Schumann Symphonic Etudes, Schubert/Liszt Ave Maria and Fruhlingsglaube, 3 LG compositions, Chopin Berceuse, Liszt La Leggeriezza and Spanish Rhapsody. Month later: Schumann Davidsbundlertanze, Chopin sonata #3, Liszt Eclogue, Au bord d'une source, Chopin Ballade Ab, Polonaise in Ab, Wagner/Liszt Tannhauser overture.

Later that year, LG announced 8 programs 1897-98 season, entire 19th century literature. Very unusual idea. Anton Rubinstein offered 7 in NYC over 12 days. LG 27 year old presenting his marathon over months. LG escaped fate of typical child prodigies and here is the finished artist. concert #1 with Knabe (Chicago Conservatory piano). Full program notes by MA, photo on cover.

indolent LG student warned. LG: leave and never come back. Student left, closed door; reopened it and said to LG: There are others!" Student went down the banister and fell in a heap onto the floor. LG gave the tudent another chance. TAO always produced a smile on LG's face.

29
LG ready to tackle Europe. requests a year sabbatical. agreed with Steinway to return for a tour of US and Canada with Boston Symphony in 1901 just in case. Besides, he had wife, Venita and 2 more: Dagmar and LPII.