Tru. Randomly a prime Hofmann rectal wiz 20 encores would really haff been sumthing
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The best Hofmann encore story was when he heard Lhevinne play Liszt’s Lorelei one afternoon, which he didn’t know, then played it as an encore that evening.
Yeah, that’s an 8 min randomass compo!
He asked Lhevinne to play it twice fo his ass
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Well, it almost seems that the better the mofo is himself, the more specific and peculiar his taste for other pianists becomes. That’s true for Richter also. Arrau for example adored Busoni as a pianist, while this mofo had the reputation of playing much more idiosyncratic and individualistic than Hofmann ever did…
Any stories of people witnessing Godowsky playing his own Etudes?
I noticed this as I ripped the Godowsky track yesterday. He’s done with Godowsky in 2 minutes, with Busoni he keeps going for 40!
If there are any stories of God & his studies I bet they’re in Nicholas’ book. The first hand accounts I’ve read of Godowsky are things I’ve just happened to stumble upon in various bios and articles, or when he’s come up in interviews etc with other pianists. I might have a minute or two of Rubinstein & Bolet talking about him as well somewhere here.
That would be great! And I would love to hear the complete Arrau interview if you have it!
Søta bror!
Haha
I should be working, but I’ll take a look if I have any indexed. Otherwise this sounds like a weekend project.
Here’s one. I cut this a little early, but it ties in with the question on whether anyone else played Godowsky in his time. Godowsky himself, as opposed to Bolet’s relation to his music, becomes the subject around the 3 minute mark.
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Just listened to this… It’s a stunning recording actually. And so different from his others! For once he goes all in and doesn’t care whether his fingers are exactly in the middle of the key with every note he strikes - it’s bold, open, dashing and unashamedly virtuosic. What a shame they destroyed the masters for the other Scherzi, this certainly makes one curious on how #1 sounded like for instance… where I bet his finger tech would have come in handy. Or even #3.
This was really interesting. I always find pianists talking about other pianists to be very interesting, roovided they can put their own ego to one side.
Very interesting discussion with Bolet. Bolet was a cool pianist. He played lots of interesting repertoire.
Bolet was a great interview subject, probably my favourite pianist to listen to in conversation next to Rubinstein and Gould. I love this precise, well organized, business like way of his too - a bit surprising for such a warm and romantic pianist. It’s half impressive, half amusing to listen to here in post-John Cleesian times.
This is great fun, too:
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Hahaha no, but many ztoriez of mofoz witnezzin da ZEPPETZ 
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very good point… so strange dat nobody asked his ass to rec HIS OWN chopets.
or
maybe dey did n he refused?
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Ahahaha tru but live zeppet witnezzz vil unlykly get a book deal any tym zoon
maybe latah tho 
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too many notes
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