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Musical Courier 1901-01-23: Vol 42 Iss 1087, 1901
34 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 5. See the scan on archive.org.
1During the past month the incoming foreign steamships have been seriously delayed through rough weather and THE MUSICAL COURIER has had to content itself with condensed news by cable. Our correspondence from Berlin, including letters dated December 8 and 15, published in our last issue, the report of Leopold Godowsky's tremendous triumph in Berlin and the following letter, dated December 24, were all received within the past ten days.
3Godowsky in Berlin.
4The American Pianist Carries Germany's Musical Centre by Storm.
6December 8, 1900.
7HE one musical event of the past week which was of superior interest to American readers of THE MUSICAL COURIER, as it proved also to the members of the American colony of Berlin, was the debut of the greatest of pianists that has so far come from the other side to Europe—Leopold Godowsky. I called you the impression he created here, although he was an absolute stranger, and appeared before one of the most critical as well as representative of audiences in an entirely unheralded fashion. In the beautiful Beethoven Hall every seat was taken, and among the listeners almost every professional and amateur pianist of Berlin could be found. To create a sensation such as Godowsky did before such a parterre of pianists would in itself constitute a convincing proof of the superior merits of this artist, but that he was so phenomenal a player I did not dream, even after having read much praise of him in various articles from the equally eloquent and authoritative pen of James Huneker. Now, however, I do not hesitate to state that in my opinion Leopold Godowsky is the best pianist now living and in many respects the greatest I ever heard. Most assuredly no other artist now living possesses the same most marvelous technic, a technic which in point of finesse and subtlety does not yield one iota to that of De Pachmann, and which, so far as brilliancy as well as accuracy is concerned, can vie successfully with the one which made and still makes Rosenthal famous.
9The great distinguishing features are that Godowsky owns the combination of technical merits to a degree which makes one think of the perfection of American machinery, without its being in the least degree mechanical. Quite on the contrary with him, this technical apparatus is governed by one of the brightest of, and at the same time broadest of, musical intellects I ever came across, which you cannot say for De Pachmann. And his technic is only a means to an end, because it is always and most conscientiously made subservient to the musical purpose, and never displayed in an ostentatious manner merely for the sake of making a show and creating a sensation through this very technic, which is Rosenthal's greatest fault. Hence Godowsky is greater than either of these two in their specialties, and he commands, besides this, the tonal charm, the poetry and all the musical qualities which distinguish Paderewski's pianism. What astonished the connoisseurs was the marvelous independence of Godowsky's fingers, which allows him to play polyphonic intricacies with a clearness as if they were being produced by different voices.
11What a courage to start out in a strange city like Berlin with an ungrateful work like the Brahms First Concerto, which seems to have been thought out more for a musical Cyclops than for a pianist! Especially the first movement—and how did this little man tackle that movement? Even stolid Rebicek, the man whose continuous task of conducting accompaniments makes him often callous to his work, which then becomes a mere matter of routine with him, was caught with the enthusiasm that emanated from the player, and rarely, if ever, did I hear the members of the Philharmonic Orchestra accompany better and more attentively under Rebicek than they did on this occasion. If nevertheless a slip of the horns occurred at the close of the first movement, the fact does not detract from the general merit of the performance.
13As for the Chopin study arrangements of Godowsky, seven of which he performed on this occasion, they took the audience, who were fully alive to the tremendous technical difficulties and the wonderful ingenuity of workmanship of these "studies upon studies," by storm. When it came to the combination of the two G flat studies, both melted into one, the enthusiasm of the listeners knew no bounds, and Godowsky, who had thus far, in his imitatively but genuinely modest way, refrained from granting a repetition, had to yield to the insisting applause and play it over again. The transcription of the Weber "Invitation à la Danse" is without doubt the most difficult work so far existing in the entire piano literature. It is also contrapuntally and in the matter of thematic treatment one of the cleverest and most ingenious contrivances of the sort. As moreover considerable musical taste in the way of refined harmonic devices is displayed, I, for my part, do not object to this novel treatment of a beloved old subject. It aroused, however, the misgivings of the music critic of one of the largest daily papers of Berlin, who thus stands out as the only dissenting vote, but also only in this one respect, to the unanimous chorus of praise with which the entire Berlin press greeted the first appearance of so phenomenal a pianist and musician as Leopold Godowsky.
15I cannot refrain from mentioning that after the perfectly dazzling display of technical equipment in these unaccompanied numbers, the poetry with which, especially the slow movement of the Tschaikowsky Concerto, was read, captivated me still more. This man has not only a wonderful musical mind, unheard of fingers and the cleverest brain I have come in contact with for a long time; he has also, what is worth more than all of these qualities, a soul. Only an artist of the most intense musical nature could have sung this Satz in the way Godowsky did. After the Tschaikowsky Concerto, though Godowsky, who was apparently nervous, seemed very tired, he had to yield to the demands for encores, choosing first the Tarantelle from the fourth Saint-Saëns Concerto, which the orchestra accompanied without rehearsal in splendid style, at the marvelous rate of speed in which the pianist performed it. More encores, however, were demanded of him, and had to be granted before Godowsky was allowed to retire for good. Then, however, the greatest surprise of all waited for him in the artists' room. Director Landeker came to offer the large hall of the Philharmonic gratis and pay all other expenses of the concert, if Godowsky would consent to give a recital in Berlin. He pleaded that he had no time, as his engagements in the United States barred him from making a longer stay in Berlin.
17Then Manager Wolff came to the rescue by suggesting a cablegram to London G. Charlton, Godowsky's American manager, asking whether the tournée in the United States could not be postponed for a fortnight. The cable was sent and yesterday a consenting reply was received. Hence we shall have a Godowsky piano recital at Beethoven Hall on January 16, the only day on which the vast concert hall was not taken for the remainder of the season. Meanwhile, however, Manager Wolff has already received so many offers for out of town engagements for Godowsky, including one for the Nikisch Leipsic Gewandhaus and for the Philharmonic concerts at Berlin and Hamburg, that in all probability Mr. Godowsky will find it worth his while to return to this country next season.
19I now shall proceed to give you in literal translation the criticisms of the most important of the daily papers of Berlin upon Godowsky's début:
21Says Prof. E. E. Taubert, in the Post:
23Herr Godowsky, who played with accompaniment of the Philharmonic Orchestra the first concerto in D minor of Brahms and the B flat minor of Tschaikowsky, in between a longer series of solo pieces, proved himself a full-blooded pianist of absolutely the first rank, who understands how to magically draw out of a Bechstein concert grand all that it has to give in beauty of tone and richness of color. His touch is worthy of admiration in its softness, and at the same time power, which never degenerates into harshness. The flowingness of passage work, the cleanliness of the polyphony, the coloring of tone—which rivals in richness of tone chances that of the orchestra—the treatment of rhythm, the dynamic shadings from the tenderest, most ethereal piano to the juiciest forte, the clan of delivery, are astounding. All this makes the listener captive as soon as Mr. Godowsky touches the keys. Here there is at last and for once a pianist who has not developed in one-sided way in this or that direction, but who is a complete artist, to whom his instrument, over which he has sovereign command, becomes the means of expression for the most finished reproduction of the tone poems which he presents to us. He forces us to love the much abused instrument as well as the works he plays. It appears absolutely unimaginable that a pianist could go still further in virtuoso ability upon his piano, or could still increase the powers of expression of the instrument. With his solo pieces Herr Godowsky offered us rare gifts, which he had compiled for himself out of the studies of Chopin. Motives from the latter have been employed to create entirely new musical formations so that the player could through them demonstrate the wonderful development of his left hand even more clearly than he could have done with the originals of Chopin. If one reads upon his program how Mr. Godowsky welded together heterogeneous pieces to create out of them something different from Chopin, one can shake one's head at such a proceeding. But if one hears how it sounds, then one's not exactly unjustifiable misgivings evaporate immediately. Entirely new formations are sounded, which moreover nobody will be able to imitate in playing, because they offer unheard of technical difficulties, which are only calculated for the abnormal abilities of their author. Without doubt the new pianist will continue his victorious career through the concert halls of the Old World with as much energy as he did those on the other side, in the New World, from whence some of the initiated had already circulated the news of his wonderful gifts. Skeptical people, however, waited quietly with their judgment until the artist appeared among us. Now, however, he stands out as the most important artistic personality that the season has so far offered us.
25Max Loewengard says in the Boersen Zeitung:
27The sensation of the week was the concert of the pianist Leopold Godowsky. He is the greatest technician who has ever been heard, and at the same time he remains a good musician. This is a rarity. Sovereign technic, an ability to which nothing seems impossible or even difficult to execute is apt to mislead in all of the arts to a trifling demonstration of such powers. People who are possessed of sufficient artistic seriousness not to fall into external show, when they have no fight at all with the material side of the question, are easily led into groping and hyper-searching. This was the case with Busoni. Those who have not been born or educated up to such artistic seriousness arrive at playing allegro movements in prestissimo time, lose all respect for the art work. This was the case with Rosenthal. Every superfluity of power, every over-measure of ability must find an outlet. Godowsky also has a good deal of superfluous power, which through interior necessity he must emanate. And as he cannot get rid of it in playing the existing piano literature he has constructed for himself a particular field of piano literature. He has combined Chopin studies in such a manner that he is enabled to play always two of them at the same time. He has trimmed and decorated Weber's "Invitation à la Danse" with incredible difficulties. If the combinations which Godowsky has thus effected were only the artisan deterioration of works, which in their original form have become holy and beloved to us, then it certainly would be appropriate to be provoked over such misapplications. This may, however, as Godowsky's Chopin studies evince a thoroughly refined artistic taste, never do violence to the spirit of the original; there is, in my opinion, nothing in them that is provoking. Whoever was able to combine the originals in such intellectual and sensuously refined style, to him they are certainly at least as holy as they can possibly be to the objecting party. He has perhaps conceived them even a good deal more profoundly, and has lovingly made them his mental property.
29In Brahms' D minor and Tschaikowsky's B flat minor concertos Godowsky showed that he is likewise able to employ his virtuosity in the service of absolute art. He played the genuine Brahms, and he gave us the real Tschaikowsky, while in the case of Weber and Chopin he had indeed told us on the program already that he would not play them, but Godowsky.
31Eugenio von Pirani says in Das Kleine Journal:
33Leopold Godowsky will henceforth have to be numbered among the first pianists. He is not a novice, but as hitherto he has lived in America, his name was as good as unknown in this country. He does not belong among the athletes of his craft; he does not ill treat, he does not chastise the innocent piano for faults it never committed, but he rather bestows upon it the tenderest of caressing, making it sing like one in love, making it laugh, or being jolly, or dance in the most furious whirlwind fashion. His agility is a stupendous one; he can become serious with Brahms, sentimental and jocose with Chopin. His specialty is the coupling the combination of various compositions which in the original have nothing in common with each other. Most of Chopin's studies from op. 10 and op. 25 he makes resound two and two together; of course with the necessary harmonic and other changes, thus like a veritable magician playing the one in the right and the other at the same time in the left hand, the double team thus cavorting together at lightning speed in the most delightful fashion. But he
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