Godowsky Symphonische Metamorphosen Johann Strauss’scher Themen

[furtwaengler]

I tells myself, "Self, you ought nots to be sharing this."

But in relation Furiouzpianist's wonderful Metamorphosis on Strauss's Blutt Waltz found here:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=63803.0

I thought I'd share this rough, rough, terribly rough terrible performance of the Godowsky Metamorphasen I gave in a small venue in Florida back on March 6th, 2017. This night was my first attempt performing any one of these and my first time to attempt to play them one after another, and it followed a first half that was my first attempt at the Beethoven-Liszt Eroica...really a brainless, mind numbingly foolish way of going about things in public,  but I did got some terribly funny comments afterwards and it was an entertaining night.

One thing I learned about these Godowsky works that night is they don't work well as a set because of how similar the harmonic tricks are, not to mention the endurance factor which I'll not say I sustained as you can hear my memory and technical control devolve rapidly through the course of the expedition. Another unforeseen thing was that in seeing them listed as a set, the audience was conservative and well behaved, holding their applause until the bitter end which made things kind of awkward (not to mention I ended the struggle missing the very last note...very appropriate).

Ah well, in relation to FuriouzPianist's piece you can get an idea for how tough this sort of music is. Have funny.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I wonder if people understand just how difficult these are. Another of my all time favourite recordings is Earl Wild's urbane, almost apparently casual, yet highly polished account of the first of these pieces. Suffice it to say I think the first (which is the only one I've looked at properly) may be harder than a few of the Cziffra Strauss paraphrases. I don't want to sit and nit-pick over some of the chord execution, for example - you acknowledge there are issues. What I would say is that really it is so commendable that you're willing to put these into a public recital. Enough of it works sufficiently well that we have an idea of what the finished whole will be. I've played ultra-hard pieces in public which objectively I shouldn't have risked, but I learnt a lot about discipline, presentation and my practical limitations from doing so. Your point about playing them consecutively is unfortunately valid - it's a bit like repeatedly calling for the dessert trolley. In any case, I'm glad you posted and that I dropped by to listen.