The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-20
\ LEOPOLD GODOWSKY

Leopold Godowsky gave an after
noon concert Thursday at the First
Baptist church to an audience that
was fairly good sized for a matinee
performance in Topeka, yet far small
er than it should have been, since the
pianistic and interpretative art set
forth was the greatest which the sea-
son is likely to present to local con-
cert goers. The opening number of
the program was Beethoven compo-
sition "Thirty-two variations in G
minor" This man GodowSky, with his
magnetic personality, his beauty of
tone coloring. his refinement of con-
ception, reads the Beethoven compo-
sitions more emotionally and subject
lively than we are accustomed to hear
from some of the great, intellectual
pianists. and Beethoven, pre-eminent-
| ly a romanticist, doubtless would pre-
fer his music so rendered
The Beethoven number was fol-
lowed by the Schumann Fantasia in
c major, a brilliant composition in
three movements. The pianist's YER
sion of this work is filled with imagi-
nation; it Is informed of beauty until
every proportion of it stands out III
| awleSS symmetry.
An outstanding feature of Godow-
sky's rendering of great classic COM
| positions is his ability to make the
average music lover more conscious
| of their beauties and less fearful of
their moments of tremendous power.
He preserves the romantic values of
| the music; he accentuates> its touches
| of tenderness, but he preserves also
its greatness of feeling. He never
falls into the sentime ntalist's error of
exaggerating some eloquent fragment
| of melody to the distortion of the
| larger line.
His command of pianistic resource
is complete For him the pedal is an
agent Of atmospheric effect. His tone
| has a hundred different cclors. In the
last group, where he presented some
| of the representative of the modern
French classics. the tones were scintil-
! lating; he swept them from the key
| board in iridescent showers His tone
sustains a polyphonic movement with
luminous transparency. and it can
create the illusion of living pulse in
| a songiike phrase; it suggests the
varied instruments of the orchestra,
and the definite limitations of the
piano are forgotten by the listener.
The Chopin sonata in B flat minor
was the best liked number of the
pianist's offering of the afternoon. 1t
is the majesty of the third movement
and the poetic charm of the whole
composition that fascinates the hearer
| The selection is not greatly beset with
technical difficulties, and it is not
meant to dazzle But it has the spirit
of poetry, and it was a command of
tonal beauty, bespeaking a sensitive
musical consciousness, that shaped its
revelation.
Godowsky is an artist who keeps
his vanity out of his vision There is
at present a superabundance of great
pianists-men whose mastery of the
instrument is complete, and whose
knowledge of the art is comprehen-
sive. Perhaps it is the strenuousness
of the competition of these pianists
that has led one after another to dis
tort and exaggerate the art he seeks
to represent; perhaps it is the neurotic
life of the period that is reflected in
their occasional 1apses from artistic
sanity, but it seems that art as whole
some and natural as that unfolded by
Godowsky is fast disappearing from
our concert halls. This artist, small
black haired, with slightly rounded
shoulders, appears without tricks OF
airs, and plays his program with pre-
! cision and authority. B. l. H