13.02.2019

On February 13, 1870 Leopold Godowsky was born – the American pianist-virtuoso and composer

Leopold Godowsky – the American pianist-virtuoso and composer, the author of the Chopin's etudes and pieces of French clavecinists sophisticated yranscrubtions .

The future outstanding pianist did not receive systematic professional education in his childhood and was an autodidact.

Godowsky was actively engaged in teaching. The technical principles that he professed  he implemented in his teaching practice - 'weight' play, muscular freedom, and movements' retrenchment.

At the zenith of his career, he possessed truly immense repertoire, including about twenty programs in which not a single composition was repeated. Wherever he settled (New York, Berlin, Vienna), his house became the center of attraction for the most prominent representatives of the artistic world. He supported Edward Grieg and Jan Sibelius, was friends with Joseph Hoffmann, Fritz Kreisler, Theodor Leschetizky, Sergey Rachmaninoff.

We have prepared the musical selection compiled of Leopold Godowsky compositions recorded from the music media that are stored in the Museum Collection fund.

The pianist biography is in the section "AUTHORS".