Many years ago I thought I might be able to economically enlarge my classical music collection by checking out records from the Wichita public library and taping them. Nope. While the selection was good, most sounded as if they had been cleaned with steel wool. However, a few of the more obscure ones were listenable. These included Raymond Lewenthal’s first Alkan album and this one.
Godowsky is probably best known for his 53 Chopin paraphrases, in which he took the demanding Chopin etudes and found ingenious ways to make them even harder. He also wrote more approachable music, such as his “Java Suite,” which includes this impression of the gamelan.
Doris Pines, the 1947 Christmas Ball Beauty Queen of Julliard, recorded only two albums, one devoted to Godowsky and the other to Agathe Backer-Grøndahl and Cécile Chaminade. Both are overdue for rescue on CD.