according to one of liszt's pupils, godowsky had superior technique(in some 'metiers') to liszt. of course godowsky could play all of his own music, and pianists after godowsky - libetta, hamelin, grante etc. - have all been able to play his music.
liszt did the op25 no 2 octave thing only once, its a famous story that dreyschok played the revolutionary etude in left hand octaves, liszts feat was a reply to that. liszt always had to have the last laugh.
the fascinating thing about these feats are obvioulsy the velocity of the octaves, which seem impossible to us mere mortals. the best recording of the godowsky etude in my opinion is on a dvd, played by libetta - a totally perfect performance - and the octaves are incredibly fast too.
the most incredible octave speed ive ever heard is the left hand in cziffra's heroic polonaise, he plays 8.5 octaves per second(in the LEFT HAND!) over quite a long time, again...BEAT THAT!
