Volume 66 in the Liszt Complete Piano Music series focuses on transcriptions from operas by Mozart and Donizetti. The Reminiscences on Mozart's Don Giovanni, with it's technical demands and innovations, stands at the pinnacle of Liszt's transcription procedure.

The 12th volume of Konstantin Scherbakov’s ongoing Leopold Godowsky cycle primarily features shorter original works and transcriptions of German art songs. Compared to his elaborate Chopin Etudes paraphrases, Godowsky’s reworkings of songs by Schumann, Brahms, Schubert, and Böhm are relatively restrained and technically manageable, although the Strauss/Godowsky Ständchen’s intricate filigree requires, shall we say, a little practice to master it well.

As always, Scherbakov is in complete command, technically and musically. His sense of textural foreground and background particularly shines in the Six Waltz-Poems for left hand alone, while his firm articulation and rhythmic drive in the Op. 11 No. 1 Concert Study prove more interesting than the actual music. These qualities also describe Scherbakov’s bravura performance of the Weber Perpetuum Mobile, where Godowsky piles more technical hurdles on top of that composer’s already challenging First Sonata Rondo finale. In Godowsky’s hands, Weber’s Invitation to the Dance gets swallowed up into a huge contrapuntal paraphrase, packed with chromatic reharmonizations and garish inner voices. Somehow Scherbakov’s straightforward elegance and stylish poise prevent the music from sounding overloaded. Marco Polo’s engineering has measurably improved over the course of this cycle, and piano mavens will appreciate Keith Anderson’s informative booklet notes.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Published in 1912, Leopold Godowsky' Waltz Masques: 24 Fantasies in Triple Time for Piano pay homage to such illustrious pianist-composers as Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy and the 'waltz king' Johann Strauss.

Godowsky, L.: Piano Music, Vol. 7

Hailed by critics at the Lucerne Festival as a modern Rachmaninov and the triumphant winner of the first Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow in 1983, Konstantin Scherbakov presents the 14th volume in Marco Polo’s Godowsky complete edition, and the first featuring selections from the 53 Studies on Chopin’s Études. Previous volumes have been critically acclaimed. In addition to recitals, orchestral performances and tours all over the world, his concert activity has brought participation in major festivals, including Salzburg, Frankfurt, Bregenz, Bodensee, Lugano, Evian and Colmar. His contribution to the Naxos Liszt piano music series includes critically acclaimed performances of Liszt's transcriptions of Beethoven's Symphonies, of which the Ninth Symphony was awarded the German Critics' Prize 2005.

Learn more about this recording on the Naxos Classical Spotlight podcast!

This, the final volume in Konstantin Scherbakov's recording of Godowsky's complete works for piano is also the second of two volumes dedicated to Godowsky’s Studies on the Chopin Études. Scherbakov performs these fearsomely challenging works with aplomb: ‘There is no one better for Godowsky’ (American Record Guide). The first volume is available on 8.225372 (volume 14 in the series).