วีดีโอ

With regard to your mention of the Dracula opera - have you watched the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

Great, passionated adn moving interpretation !!!

Hi Mr.Stanhope, thanks for the amazing work you've done! Which etude would you consider more technically demanding for the left hand between Godowsky's n.3 (op.10 n.2 for the left hand alone) or Godowsky's n.22 (the one in this video)? Would you consider n.3 to be a good way to build up strength and endurance to tackle other left hand only etudes? Greetings from Italy!

0:43

YEP this is the best recording I've found. For all the work Busoni did with it, it's still Bach and a good performance needs to get out of the way of the music and keep the counterpoint clear. You manage this far better than any other recordings I've found.

you are amazing

I´m back watching your video again. You´re a genious. I love your playing! Rewatching made me appreciate your amazing matcherpiece even more!

This version is better than the Ogdon (though that was live).

2:54 4:26 5:38 7:38 10:18 10:52 11:10 16:25

Chopin told the likes of Franz Liszt not to mess with his compositions and invited Liszt to write his own instead. While these Etudes are studies and so Godowsky tries to amplify their usefulness by employing them as study pieces to improve piano technique, to me the Chopin Etudes are more importantly works of art! About this, I feel that I just don't like the texture and sound of what Godowsky has done. When Berezovsky plays them so brilliantly, they sound vulgar! Why would anyone want to paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa? While I have my personal feelings about what kind of audacity Godowsky had to toy with Chopin's works considering that Chopin told people explicitly not to do it and they did not listen to him, the controvery about Godowsky's right to do this is in the public record, so I defer to that source. On a positive note, this pianist David Stanhope is a very refined pianist and his rendering sound almost decent! So despite my criticism, he is a very fine pianist indeed... Godowsky wrote over 300 pieces of his own but who plays them. Was he a great composer of the stature of Chopin? How dare he touch a Chopin masterpiece! IMHO. Still Stanhope is a great pianist and I want to listen to him play Chopin proper.

I've listened to this recording so many times over the years, I really enjoy it and it always makes me go to the piano after listening (though I don't play nearly as well as you do here...) ; thank you !

I love it like this, it gives me the feel of an unstoppable wheel... Like in Gretchen am Spinnrade.

it has been a long time since ive felt such vigor and life from the piano... brought me to tears mr stanhope. one of the greatest performances of any piece ive heard in a very very long time

Sir, thank you so much, that was a truly outstanding performance. Amazing.

This is more technically challenging than it is on the organ. Great job 👏🏼

you are have an amazing channel, I´m going to watch every video about the godowsky chopin studies. thank you for sharing those amazing studies. you play them so well!

Godowsky's left-hand chromatic etude after Chopin inspired to try my hand at arranging the Rach Bumblebee transcription for the left hand in b-minor. Didn't get very far but i imagine Godowsky would've had a field day with it the way Cziffra did with those alternating-octave runs, etc. in his insane arrangement.

Just finished watchung your op 10 series in 2 days between watching kids and doing dishes. I was totally enthralled and your commentary elucidated for me what Godowsky was trying to accomplish in his various arrangements that up til now just seemed largely to me to be Chopin melodies buried under a flurry of extra notes - wow, thank you, thank you.

My first piece i heard by Lizst

Sir, I have played Op.25 No.4 for 18 years now, explored many versions from different pianists, never managed to play it with under 3-4 mistakes at least. But your performance is simply sublime, maybe the best I've seen. And you seem to have huge hands, which is almost a "cheat" for this etude. And there is another common thing. I too decided at the age of 16 to not use any pedal. Reasoning back then? It is much more difficult, you do constant legato/portamento with some challenging jumps to keep the melody afloat. Some people don't have that skill at all, they compensate using the pedal. And those with smaller hands are virtually disqualified from not using any pedal at all. It's one of my favourite etudes as it requires a very specific skill, which I fortunately possess, but I salute you for your rendition of this underrated gem of an etude. Excellent performance. And, overall, you've done an inexplicably great deed of providing pointers for any aspiring Chopin/Godowsky learners, including myself.

A great, great piece!

楽譜はBusoniだけど編曲はBach-Stanhope、88鍵より低い音。

Bravo! Wonderful performance!

Impresionante!!!! Es tremenda esta obra...como un volcán en acción🌋....si ya de por si es dificil Chopin...Godowsky menudo hijo de....jaja...impresionante😮😮😮😮

The speed is unmusical. At that velocity it is just a noise. The metronome has a chequered history in terms of tempo and there were several serious episodes of crazy / inexplicable speeds in musical history.

Crazy how catchy the themes in this movement are.

As if Winter Wind isn't hard enough, he's switched the RH part to the LH 😭😭😭😭😭

That was a real eye opener ! Thank you !!! Subscribed.

The postlude never fails to bring tears to my eyes. I haven’t found the time to listen yet, but will do as soon as I can. I’m sure your orchestration will be wonderful.

Have always loved this sonata, and your orchestration really captures the final movement beautifully. Love the use of winds especially, and your tempo choices are spot on throughout.

How beautiful...the luscious harmonies suit the strings especially.

Very good orchestration!!

yes, fast, but a bit sloppy. can't hear some of the runs anymore because too muddled.

GREAT !! 🎉🎉 Also correct the title "BACH-Busoni" 😮😮 I'll wait for the same fairness and education when it comes to Vivaldi , PLEASE title "VIVALDI-Bach" all the transcriptions/arrangements the great BACH realized 😊😊😊 🌺🏵️🌺

you sir are a genius! Dont know what's harder - coming up with all those ideas or executing them flawlessly - but you did both!

Would you suggest using the ring finger for the single notes after the octaves/chords for the right hand melodies? Also, Im no expert but the right hand in Godowsky's study seems more difficult than the left (or it could be my imagination) what are your thoughts?

Bravo maestro❤❤❤

I don't know if you still check these comments but thanks a lot for uploading these. They're absolutely amazing!

Just ridiculous. Unbelievably strong and dexterous left hand… my hands hurt from just watching this

It is nothing compared with the organ....best wait for that!

Fantastic job, David. May I ask - how long did it take you to learn this étude thoroughly? How many pieces are you able to learn in a year?

I really appreciate all these videos and your effort, but I'm very disappointed that you chose to record the Op. 25 on such an underwhelming piano. There's a marked difference in quality between your Op. 10 and your Op. 25 videos. If you were to ever rerecord the Op. 25 on a nice grand piano, I would be ecstatic.

Here he created one hell of a apocalypse...

Dear maestro...i was thinking about the famous Godowsky statement "i assure you my studies are not that difficult...maybe a little bit when you read them..." 🤔

I just see a flying left hand 😍

6:42 do you think Godowski refer this right hand melody from Saint-Saens violin concerto No.3 3rd movement? or just coincidence? I’ve been wondering but nobody mentioned it

Great!

David one thing I love about your performances is you don’t add the tiny pauses to give your hand more time to make a jump, stretch, etc - my teacher once told me you shouldn’t fit the interpretation to your technique but rather your technique should fit the interpretation. I feel you’re a shining example of doing this and it’s so satisfying to hear the piece as if the metronome never slows!

❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️

Hi David. This study is one of those (like feux follet and others) where the sheer physicality of playing the thirds at speed is like an impenetrable wall. How did you get faster? It seems like it is just a simple case of edging up the speed over months and months, or do you think there is a technique that opens doors here?