Some years ago a critic remarked that the difficulties of Godowsky's 53 Studies on Chopin's 27 Studies—his most widely discussed contribution to super-virtuosity—are exaggerated. Jeremy Nichols, on the other hand, in his lively notes for the present disc, claims that many of Godowsky's demands are beyond the amateur. One might ruefully add that they are also beyond the easy majority of professionals, and it is surely to the credit of Jorge Bolet (who prompted the first of these asides) and Rian De Waal that their lucidity and regality create their own grand illusion; they make the music seem undemanding.
For his debut album on Hyperion, Rian De Waal makes a judicious selection from Godowsky's teeming and exquisitely decadent art. And going in at the deep end he commences with the Passacaglia: 44 variations, cadenza and fugue on the opening of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. Composed in 1927 this is surely Godowsky's masterpiece, a sombre and magnificent tribute written on the centenary of Schubert's death. It was played by Simon Barere, considered by Bolet and playfully dismissed by Horowitz as impossible. So it is even more to Rian De Waal's glory that his performances, magisterially controlled at even the most death-defying turns, is a musical as well as technical revelation. His tone is rich and sonorous, the epilogue commences with an ideal poise and the final fugue, concluding with a gesture of dark defiance, is given with an inexorable power and momentum. Godowsky's Teutonic, Reger-based pianistics hold absolutely no terrors for this virtuoso, who even in Godowsky's demands for triple forte, sempre con fuoco e maestoso never confuses strength with violence.
Elsewhere he is hardly less successful. He weaves his way through the Schubert ''Ungeduld'' arrangement—the ultimate virtuoso maze—with complete assurance and in his world-premiere recording of the Weber/Godowsky Invitation to the dance there is no danger of his sounding ''like an elephant in a tutu'' (a colleague's derisory reduction of the possible end result of Godowsky's infinitely rich and laden textures). The Kunsterleben paraphrase is at once cool and heroic and is less drastically cut than in Earl Wild's brilliant and recently reissued Vanguard performance ((CD) 08 4033 71). All the same it would be good to have it complete; Godowsky's indefatigable elaboration is surely the point.
In more delicate, less obviously demanding fare De Waal is not so touching as Bolet (Decca) in his recording of the Ballet Music from Schubert's Rosamunde and he's much less teasing and insinuating than Cherkassky (also on Decca) in both the Moment musical and ''Alt Wien'', a performance now ripe for reissue. But in the grandest and most demanding pieces, and notably in the Passacaglia, Rian De Waal's virtuosity is awe-inspiring, and he's complemented throughout by a beautifully natural and wide-ranging recording.'