LEOPOLD GODOWSKY LEFT HAND
Chopin Études and other pieces for the left hand alone

If, for those of us who secretly believe that even two hands are often not enough, the Godowsky left hand transcriptions of the Chopin etudes represent Dante's Inferno, and the Etudes Godowsky transcribed for the left hand alone would certainly require a tenth circle of Hell all their own.

Often referred to as "The Pianists' Pianist", Leopold Godowsky was, according to his peers, the most amazingly gifted pianist of them all. Of his technique, Artur Rubinstein wrote, "It would take me 500 years to get a mechanism like Godowsky's." Józef Hofmann is known to have said to a friend after hearing Godowsky play at home, "Never forget what you heard tonight; never lose the memory of that sound. There is nothing like it in the world. It is tragic that the world has never heard Popsy as only he can play."

Alas, Popsy, as he was known to his intimates, suffered terribly from stage fright and, as incredible as it may seem to those who are familiar with his recordings, he was never able to play in public, or even in a recording studio, as beautifully and brilliantly as he did at home.

I have not yet been able to discover with any degree of authenticity the why behind his studies on Chopin's etudes. The mastery of the etudes in their original form is daunting to the most accomplshed pianist. I can only surmise that he made the transcriptions because he was capable of playing them. A technique as formidable as his would needs be perpetually on the lookout for a challenge, and as no composer would have dared write anything so difficult to play with any hope of its ever being played, he did so himself.

But Godowsky the composer must also have been tantalized by the myriad possibilities presented by the Chopin etudes. In some cases, the transcriptions represent a level of abstract conception worthy of his friendship with Albert Einstein.

While the Godowsky left hand studies after Chopin etudes are perhaps best known of his efforts in this direction, there are also a number of Godowsky left hand original compositions and transcriptions of music by other composers, several of which are offered here.  And while these are good performances for the most part, try, while listening, to imagine what they would have sounded like played by the left hand of Leopold Godowsky.

In only two cases do I offer more than one performance of the same Godowski left hend piece.  One is the 13th study after Chopin Op 10~6.  I do this because there is one performance, the one by David Saperton, a great American pianist of the first half of the last century, who was Godowsky's son-in-law and who plays this transcription with an unparalleled musicality as if he had been given the Godowsky left hand as a dowry.

The other three are by fine pianists, but none is likely to be on anyone's list of the greatest pianists of the century.  The difference is astounding, and compared to Saperton's playing, the others sound like they are making mud pies in the back yard (Meral Guneyman not so much).  Yes, I dare say this in speaking about Hamelin whose technical prowess is legend.  But I have never heard him play without thinking, "What a technique."  And without thinking further that the music has been sacrificed on the alter of his technical ability.

The other is Op 10~12 for similar reasons.

For you right brainers, I have included, at the end, two of the Godowsky left hand Chopin transcriptions as re-transcribed and performed by a pianist who had suffered a dislocation of his left thumb.

Chopin-Godowsky Transcriptions for the left hand

2 study in D♭ major on Etude in C major, Op 10~1
MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN (b 1961), Canadian pianist