TT 457: Shura Cherkassky plays Godowsky encores

something ineffable floats through the air

Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938) was a prodigious pianist and composer whose significant original music includes a monumental Piano Sonata and the innovative Java Suite. However, Godowsky remains best-known for his fabulous virtuoso transcriptions, including a set of 53 studies on Chopin Études that are among the hardest things ever written.

The two Godowsky pieces that have the widest circulation are comparatively gentle amplifications of Saint-Saëns “The Swan” and Albeniz “Tango in D.”

The repertory of Shura Cherkassky (1909-1995) stretched from classical staples to modernist masterpieces, but his best playing could be found in the kind of romantic music that allowed in something capricious or even surreal.

Cherkassky was a student of Godowsky’s friend Josef Hofmann and even had some lessons with Godowsky himself; fortunately for posterity, video exists of Cherkassky performing “The Swan” and “Tango in D.”

In “The Swan” the melody stands out from the decorative Art Nouveau ornamentation. (If you compare with other great pianists playing this piece, you might find that Cherkassky has the most differentiation between figure and ground.)

In “Tango” the pianist flirts outrageously with the rhythm, teasing the melody this way and that.

Both performances stop time; for a moment the only thing that matters is beauty.