Godowsky : Edition Godowsky, Vol.7.

Piano International (May, 2012)
Grante’s seventh volume of the complete Godowsky might serve as an introduction to those unfamiliar with Godowsky’s idiom, including, as it does, six of his best-known transcriptions alongside some real rarities. Examples of his most intricate contrapuntal writing (the three paraphrases on themes by Johann Strauss II) share the disc with more literal transcriptions (Karl Bohm’s Still wie die Nacht, Richard Strauss’s Ständchen).

Some might think that Albéniz’s Triana was complex enough without further additions. Godowsky somehow manages to elaborate its textures without compromising its essential character, though this is a more fruitful exercise when applied to the same composer’s celebrated Tango. This Grante plays with a poetic refinement, as …