Godowsky’s music – both his original works and his elaborate transcriptions – is not to everyone’s taste. The density of its polyphonic and polyrhythmic fabric can evince a saturation of texture and incident that signals a more romantically tolerant era than our own. Some listeners object to what they see as the romantic or subjective ‘excess’ of Godowsky’s arrangements, and collectors who hold this view will not want this disc.
However, they will be missing out on a feast of pianism that is extraordinary both for the writing and the playing. Here is Bach recontextualized and refocused through the lens of early twentieth-century pianistic glorification, drawing on a tradition stemming from Liszt and Tausig and encompassing Busoni as well as Godowsky. Godowsky’s transcriptions are harmonic and textural intensifications, much freer than Liszt’s Bach arrangements, although less evocative than Busoni’s personalized responses. This is, to quote from Ates Orga’s notes, “twentieth century Romantic Bach on a grandiose, metamorphic scale”.
This is Vol. 2 of Sherbakov’s Godowsky series and he proves well equipped for such a demanding survey (unlike, for example, Geoffrey Douglas Madge on Danacord who simply sounds out of his depth in his Godowsky recordings). Sherbakov’s keyboard facility, his pinpoint articulation, his unerring sense of rhythmic drive and security, his weaving together of the many layers and voices and his sense of colour and phrasing are all a joy to listen to. The power and nobility of Bach’s works are successfully communicated (it is a measure of what Busoni called “Great Universal Music” that the greatness transcends instrumental medium and idiomatic setting). The result, however, must properly be heard as a fusion of compositional inputs, as Bach-Godowsky: Godowsky’s contribution is essential to the overall sonic image. Bach’s originals remain intact; nothing can displace or replace their wonderful and majestic richness.
In summary, this may be a disc primarily for piano buffs, but it should, I believe, hold an appeal far beyond that despite the fact that the sound is barely adequate. If you wish to get a flavour then try the Allemande from the B minor ‘Sonata’ (in fact, the First Partita – track 5). I doubt whether those repelled by such pianistic amplification will have read this far, so I feel safe in recommending this wholeheartedly. An exceptional disc.'