Studies on Chopin's Études


The Studies on Chopin's Études are a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's études by Leopold Godowsky, composed between 1894 and 1914. They are renowned for their technical difficulty: critic Harold C. Schonberg called them "the most impossibly difficult things ever written for the piano." Several of the studies put the original right-hand part into the left hand; several others are for the left hand alone. Two of the studies even combine two études; the better known of these, called "Badinage," combines both the G.

The studies

The number of studies is often given as 54, with Op. 25, No. 2 having one study written as a considerably different ossia of another; a similar ossia also exists for one of the studies on Op. 25, No. 3, so the total number of studies can be taken to be 55. In contrast, Godowsky's original numbering scheme runs only to 48.

Opus 10

; Opus 10 No. 1
  • 1st Study in C major
  • 2nd Study in D major
; Opus 10 No. 2
  • 1st Study in A minor
  • 2nd Study in A minor
; Opus 10 No. 3
  • Study in D major
; Opus 10 No. 4
; Opus 10 No. 5
  • 1st Study in G major
  • 2nd Study in C major
  • 3rd Study in A minor
  • 4th Study in A major
  • 5th Study in G major
  • 6th Study in G major
  • 7th Study in G major
  • This étude was also combined with the Opus 25 No. 9 étude in the "Badinage" composition.
; Opus 10 No. 6
; Opus 10 No. 7
  • 1st Study in C major
  • 2nd Study in G major
  • 3rd Study in E major
; Opus 10 No. 8
  • 1st Study in F major
  • 2nd Study in G major
; Opus 10 No. 9
  • 1st Study in C minor
  • 2nd Study in F minor
  • 3rd Study in F minor
; Opus 10 No. 10
  • 1st Study in D major
  • 2nd Study in A major
; Opus 10 No. 11
  • Study in A major
  • This étude was also combined with the Opus 25 No. 3 étude.
; Opus 10 No. 12
  • Study in C minor

Opus 25

; Opus 25 No. 1
  • 1st Study in A major
  • 2nd Study in A major
  • 3rd Study in A major
; Opus 25 No. 2
  • 1st Study in F minor
  • 2nd Study in F minor
  • 3rd Study in F minor
  • 3rd Study in F minor
  • 4th Study in F minor
  • This étude was also imitated in one of the Opus 10 No. 9 studies.
; Opus 25 No. 3
  • 1st Study in F major
  • 2nd Study in F major
  • This étude was also combined with the Opus 10 No. 11 étude
; Opus 25 No. 4
  • 1st Study in A minor
  • 2nd Study in F minor
; Opus 25 No. 5
  • 1st Study in E minor
  • 2nd Study in C minor
  • 3rd Study in B minor
; Opus 25 No. 6
; Opus 25 No. 7
There are no studies of this étude in the collection.
; Opus 25 No. 8
  • Study in D major
; Opus 25 No. 9
  • 1st Study in G major
  • 2nd Study in G major
  • This étude was also combined with the Opus 10 No. 5 étude in the "Badinage" composition.
; Opus 25 No. 10
  • Study in B minor
; Opus 25 No. 11
  • Study in A minor
; Opus 25 No. 12
  • Study in C minor

Trois Nouvelles Études

; Nouvelle Étude No. 1
  • Study in F minor
; Nouvelle Étude No. 2
  • 1st Study in E major
  • 2nd Study in D major
; Nouvelle Étude No. 3
  • Study in G major

Omitted and unfinished studies

An additional number of studies have been documented, but all got omitted from the final list, three of them had been found, fragmented and incomplete. Due to these changes and the discovery of the unfinished studies, it is believed that there are over a dozen studies that were composed but not published. Godowsky told Grover Ackley Brower, an assistant editor at Carl Fischer, that there were 12 to 15 unpublished Studies. Godowsky's secretary, John George Hinderer, wrote that Godowsky had ten manuscripts left in Vienna at the outbreak of World War I. Examining the studies that were included in the 1903 and 1909 lists that were ultimately removed from the final collection, the following studies were either completed, unfinished or conceptualized:

Omitted studies

Opus 10 No. 2
  • 3rd Study in A minor
Opus 10 No. 5
  • 8th Study in G major
  • 9th Study in G major
Opus 10 No. 11
  • 2nd Study in E
Opus 25 No. 6
  • 2nd Study in G minor for left hand
Opus 25 No. 7
  • Study in C minor or F minor
Opus 25 No. 8
  • 2nd Study in D major
Opus 25 No. 10
  • Study
Opus 25 No. 12
  • Study in C minor
Study
Op. 25 No. 4 and Op. 25 No. 11 combined

Unfinished studies

Opus 25 No. 3
2nd Study in D minor
Nouvelle Étude No. 1
Study in F minor
Study in A minor
Op. 10 No. 2, Op. 25 No. 4 and Op. 25 No. 11
Recordings
There's a couple of recordings on the March and Study 50, though there is no live recording for now. Hamelin has a recording of his own version of Study 44a.

Editions

The studies were published in the early 20th century by Schlesinger, now, a subsidiary of Schott Music Group. They are currently available in five volumes.
  • Volume 1, Nos. 1–12a. Product number RL16940,
  • Volume 1, Nos. 13–20. Product number RL16950,
  • Volume 1, Nos. 21–30. Product number RL16960,
  • Volume 1, Nos. 31–40. Product number RL16970,
  • Volume 1, Nos. 41–48. Product number RL16980,
They are published in the United States by Carl Fischer Music.

Recordings

Only four pianists, Geoffrey Douglas Madge, Carlo Grante, Marc-André Hamelin, and Emanuele Delucchi have recorded the entire set of the studies. Francesco Libetta, Carlo Grante and Emanuele Delucchi have performed the complete set in concert, but only Libetta has done so from memory. Francesco Libetta performed them again in Miami on July 7, 2018, in two recitals in the same day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, also all of them by memory. Emanuele Delucchi performed the complete set in one afternoon in Cagliari on September 19, 2024. Ivan Ilić has made a speciality of the 22 études for the left hand alone.
Only a few other pianists have ventured to record selected studies. The first was Vladimir de Pachmann, who recorded the Study on Op. 10, No. 12 in 1912. Others include Boris Berezovsky, Michel Beroff, Jorge Bolet, Robert Goldsand, Ian Hobson, Ivan Ilić, David Saperton, Victor Schiøler, Jacob Jettomersky, and David Stanhope.