"Only top-class virtuosos come into question. Emanuele Delucchi is one of them ... in a class of his own." (Gramophone)

This is Delucchi's fourth album dedicated to the piano art of Leopold Godowsky. Its theme is counterpoint and the possibilities of polyphony at the piano, which Godowsky extended beyond the previously known limits. The album begins with Godowsky's magnificent transcription of Bach's Sonata for Solo Violin BWV1001. As a counterbalance to the sonata, the album closes with the tranquil Andante from the solo sonata BWV1003.

in 1929, Godowsky composed his own Prelude and Fugue on the theme B-A-C-H as part of a series of pieces for the left hand: an impressive demonstration of his technical and compositional genius. "Imagine a real fugue in three voices", he wrote to his friends, "inversions, contractions, organ points and all kinds of techniques on B-A-C-B for one hand!" Nevertheless, the fugue itself is by no means austere, but rather cheerful, just as joyful a celebration of the piano and its possibilities as the other works here.

Godowsky based the first of his Symphonic Metamorphoses on themes by Johann Strauss from the waltz "Künstlerleben". This piece competes with his contrapuntal paraphrase of Weber's "Invitation to the Dance" (dedicated to Busoni no less) for the title of perhaps the most complex piece ever written for piano on a dance theme.

As with his previous Godowsky albums, all of which were enthusiastically received by critics, Delucchi has chosen to record these works on a piano from Godowsky's time, which lends warm colors and a touch of nostalgia to his playing. He has chosen a Steinway grand piano from 1879, whose warm and poetic sound is well suited to evoke the mood of fin de siècle Vienna and unfold the complex polyphony of a piano genius. Delucchi also contributes his own concise and informed essay on the history and context of these pieces to the booklet.

Sonate g-moll BWV 1001 (Johann Sebastian Bach); Präludium & Fuge über BACH; Walzer op. 64 Nr. 1 (Frederic Chopin); Kontrapunktische Paraphrase "Aufforderung zum Tanz" (Carl Maria von Weber); Symphonische Metamorphose "Künstlerleben" (Johann Strauss II); Andante aus Violinsonate a-moll BWV 1003 (Johann Sebastian Bach)