Horowitz performances of these jewels, particularly the Rachmaninoff Etudes and the Chopin Barcarolle and Mazurka, are absolutely divine, no words can describe this outstanding playing. It is magical, it touches the heart, it is passionate and the themes are beautifully voiced. I just don't have the words to express Horowitz masterful playing, it is too heavenly, too divine!
What's extraordinary.......is that you know he is a great pianist when you hear him ......but you don't know why; I heard two concerts of Horowitz after he came back from retirement. Out of all the concerts I heard, those two stand out!
A priceless document of a sensational recital...absolutely enthralling playing...mesmerizing...His control of dynamics, color, and phrasing, all in the service of the most beautiful of interpretive conceptions. Certainly, Vladimir Horowitz was a genius, if any performer may be so described
When Horowitz is "On" while performing the Op. 60 Barcarolle (20:29), I can't help but feel how collosal of a piece that composition is. It is so introverted, so in touch with inner emotions, yet later exploding with passion and force. This recorded performance is typical of how Horowitz was at his peek. It seems he had the entirety of this jewel solidly in mind from the beginning; IMHO, there were a few places where he yielded to his lightning-like technical skills, but settled back to the mood of the piece perfectly.
This was an incredibly great recital. No words can get near to his true greatness. I have never heard anyone play those Rachmaninov pieces so amazingly. I love his interpretation and magic.
The difference in tonality, dynamic contrast, and musicality of these recordings and that of the post 1985 recordings are striking. I personally prefer his latter recordings, but I nonetheless his playing regardless of time. An outstanding and remarkable musician.
Of all the recordings I have ever heard of the glorious Barcarolle, this has to be up there in the best 5. Lipatti's is legendary as well but the opening was stunning.
Horowitz spatiality and dynamic and color control in hist late recordings of the Barcarola are unique and beyond any other recording. Lipatti's is very good but here we reach the Everest of the piano playing.
He did the 1967 program in Boston. I heard it. He was out of this world. The Scarlattis were jewels. The Rachmaninoff was. ...well, we all were screaming "bravos" for a long time. Then, I thought the Beethoven seemed flat, but hearing him again gives much pause...maybe too "horowitzed" (wonderful espressivo/conception too idiocyncratic..."strange."
Read Czernys description of how Beethoven played his own works then you might start to see Horowitz is closer to him than post 1945 fashions would suggest.
We are forgetting the CREATOR of these heavenly sounds: CHOPIN. Jus imagine what music this otherworldly human being would have given the universe had he had a 72nd birthday!....... Damned tuberculosis.....
I like that he put them in the middle of the program (or did Sony just put them in the middle of the disc?) Either way it's a nice suggestion that they are more than mere warmup pieces.
PROGRAM: Beethoven: Piano Sonata op 101: 00:15 Allegretto ma non troppo 04:19 Vivace alla marcia 10:16 Adagio ma non troppo con affetto 12:53 Allegro Chopin: 20:30 Barcarolle op 60 29:20 Nocturne op 55 n 1 34:32 Polonaise op 44 Scarlatti: 45:10 Sonata K 101 48:16 Sonata K 319 50:11 Sonata K 260 54:28 Sonata K 466 57:32 Sonata K 55 Schumann: 59:51 Arabeske op 18 Rachmaninoff: 1:06:54 Etude tableaux op 39 n 5 1:11:35 Etude tableaux op 39 n 9 ENCORES: 1:15:27 Schumann Träumerei op 15 n 7 1:18:14 Chopin Mazurka op 7 n 3 1:20:42 Bizet Carmen Variations
With so many pianists now available on RU-vid, and after listening to some of the finest, I decided to re-appraise Horowitz’s pianism. As I listen to his rendition of Scarlatti’s and Chopin’s, the Walden Pond of Henry D. Thoreau came to my mind: at times explosive (during the Spring Season, as the ice breaks down with thundering sounds and “tumults” but also pellucid “crystalline” and “honeycombed,” notes merging into one another). His diminuendo and poco rit. could be compared to the action of sunlights on a liquescent lake of marvelous beauty and reflections! One could also compare his hovering ghost-notes --resounding in the stringboard- to shafts of light passing through a prism or translucent object. It is worth reminding the reader that Horowitz, like all the great masters, sought the greatest juxtapositions and contrasts, from the “dull-sounding tones” to the most striking “pyrotechnics” in the “bold impasto” of genius! When speaking of pianissimo, I would forgo speaking of ripples, eddies, foams, bubbles, spumes and suds, because Horowitz’ range of dynamics would require the finest ears!
Come.on Jaime! You Must stop.telling the Big Lie=Horowitz the Greatest Pianist! The Truth is Horowitz Not the Greatest Pianist! More Colorful beautiful piano sound than Horowitz=Wilhelm Kempff Emil Gilels Radu Lupu Artur Rubinstein Vladimir Ashkenazy!! MORE POWERFUL Louder.than Horowitz=Mikhail Pletnev The Most Powerful Loudest Pianist ever!!=( Prokofiev piano concerto no 1 by Pletnev!! Pletnev The Nuclear BOMB POWER!! NO-ONE IS CLOSE NUCLEAR BOMB POWER! PLETNEV A CLASS OF HIS OWN WITH HIS POWER!! The second Loudest Hardest Hitter.of The Keyboard was Lazar Berman!! More Genius than Horowitz=Sviatoslav Richter Grigory Sokolov Solomon Cutner Maurizio Pollini Alexei Lubimov Stanislav Igolinsky! Igolinsky better than Dinu Lipatti! My Money My Vote My List says Igolinsky better than Dinu Lipatti!!!!
This is pretty stiff for Horowitz, except for the Bizet. Not that it is bad, but it often sounds like practicing. I can barely listen to the Chopin for that reason. I saw him twice in 1970; Iowa City and Minneapolis. He was in the zone by then and hit the local gay hotspot in Minneapolis later in the evening. I believe he was at his best, all time best for his entire career. His ability to communicate with the audience was singular. Everyone felt he was playing directly for them. After the last Moszkowski Etude in Minneapolis he turned to the piano and laughed.
Well, no one mentions the absolutely horrible piano! The fact that it relentlessy "double strikes" which destroyd the whole performance for me. He plays beautifully aling thr way, a great pianist. But there is much to criticize and question as well. Oh well!
@@amber40494 minutes 17-ish and 18 are great... they show a forward thinking interpretation of Beethoven. how the composer would have played it if his piano had the complete dynamic range of today's instrument. it's the romantic flair over classical rigidity that others sometimes give it that truly makes it music. if you can't tell, i also loved it.
Looked at (or listened to) pianistically, this recording is fabulous, yet the internal dynamics of his playing hardly changed, so there is no essential difference between the sixties and the eighties. "He is the best lover the piano has had", said Argerich.
Такого уже никогда не будет, потому что это он общался например с самим Рахманиновым и уж точно знак как его исполнять. Будут другие исполнители ппо которых скажут что таких тоже не будет лет 200. Но это будет уже совсем другая современная история.
Il aurait fallu achever la personne qui s'étouffe depuis la première minute du concert, c'est insupportable, et c'est pas humain de laisser quelqu'un souffrir comme ça !
Schumann never had a "Children's Corner". He has a "Children's Scenes". Debussy has a "Children's Corner". Sorry, but you ought to edit that mention in the program list 😉
57:18 coughing , coughing , coughing and coughing forever . I really ask you , dear Madam , have you really no conscience that you will disturb , many years after your own death , millions of people listening carefully to these precious moments of heavenly music ?
He played a few Beethoven pieces over the years. I saw him play the 101 in Ann Arbor around 1979, I think. I wish he had recorded the 106, not to mention the last three. He also has a few recordings of Op 27 no.2.
Horowitz in stupendous form. Even Op. 101, generally Horowitz at his clumsiest and most uncomfortable, sounds just about right here. Chopin, Rachmaninoff and the Carmen Variations as terrific as anything on record even by Horowitz himself, let alone by somebody else.
+Herbert Hall The myth of Horowitz continues unabated. The Op 39, nr 5 is terrible..... disjointed, pulled all over the place, lots of banging, and all on that terrible New York Steinway that he had so customised that the upper registers sound like two cats fighting on a hot tin roof, and the bass is just horrible, horrible. With Horowitz everything sounds the same, the product of a prodigious technique and a limited imagination. Far more revered in the US than he was in his own country, the pyrotechnics gain cheap applause, but compared to the real Russian titans of the 20 Century, Sofronitsky, Richter and Gilels, he is sadly third rate.
I imagine Gilels, if he did say that, he was pressed by some American journalist into saying some such. Gilels was on a completely different level than Horowitz as a musician. Horowitz was a showman first and foremost
You can imagine anything you like. I heard Gilels any times from 1955 on, and loved his playing. You might benefit from listening to the recorded Horowitz during his 80s - especially the works which require the utmost musicianship. They are transcendental. Though Gilels did not live nearly as long as VH (Richter said he was accidentally killed in a Russian hospital), his later recordings of Grieg and Mendelssohn are also transcendental.
l'aigle vole seul--I agree with you about Horowitz's performance of the two Rachmaninoff etudes. The playing is fussy and overloaded with detail, all at the expense of the passionate tide of Romantic expression. While I cannot agree with you that Horowitz is third-rate, his playing during this period of his life is just quirky. Everything you said about his performance of the etude is also true of the Barcarolle. I have never heard him play this piece well.
The recording of this program does not capture the magic of VH's sound. When I heard this program in Chicago at Orchestra Hall with my beloved teacher, Herman Shapiro, the Head of the Piano Dept. at DePaul Univ., the nuance, color. voicing, dynamics. etc. were so incredible, like nothing I had ever heard before. After the recital, we walked around the Loop reliving every note.
He WAS WITHOUT PEER! My teacher, a juiliard pianist and teacher who spent Evenings with Horowitz used much the same language to describe and praise VH: his nuance, voicing and dynamics were incomparable. If of a mind to, catch is 1987 recording of Mozart's K333 sonata. Compare it to others. Stop, breathe, inhale its musical scents. The search may have ended there.
Oh, the Nocturne is fascinating, and it strikes my heart (inspite of the incessant coughing of exactly one audience memer) as beautiful. And the crescendo that goes beyond any nocturne? Well it successfully drowned out the coughing for a bit so that eveyone else could hear the pianist! Anyway, I amuse myself, but only just really. I have never heard Volodya play this polonaise, and I am taken aback. The power is immense. This concert is like climbing a mountain and going back down. So epic!
NOT TRUE!! Horowitz Not The Greatest Pianist! Better more colorful beautiful piano sound than Horowitz=Wilhelm Kempff Emil Gilels Radu Lupu Artur Rubinstein Vladimir Ashkenazy! More powerful Louder than Horowitz=Mikhail Pletnev The Most Powerful The Loudest pianist Ever! The Second hardest hitter of The Keyboard was Lazar Berman! More Genius than Horowitz=Alexei Lubimov Grigory Sokolov Solomon Cutner Sviatoslav Richter Maurizio Pollini Stanislav Igolinsky!! ;.
A GLORIOUS TREAT all around! No one ever has -- or ever will -- play Scarlatti so splendidly. And his Rachmaninoff is in a class by itself -- an opinion the composer, himself shared without reservation. And else has ever played the Schumann Arabesque with greater tenderness, and more attention to the nuances implicit in every phrase? The answer is NO ONE.
Come on Alex! You must stop.telling the Big Lie=Horowitz the Greatest Pianist! The Truth is Horowitz Not the Greatest! Better more colorful beautiful piano sound than Horowitz=Wilhelm Kempff Emil Gilels Radu Lupu Artur Rubinstein Vladimir Ashkenazy!! MORE POWERFUL Louder than Horowitz=Mikhail Pletnev The Most Powerful Louder than Horowitz!=Prokofiev piano concerto no 1 by Pletnev!! Pletnev The Nuclear BOMB POWER! NO-ONE IS CLOSE BECAUSE PLETNEV HIS POWER A CLASS OF HIS OWN!! The Second Loudest Hardest Hitter of the Keyboard was Lazar Berman!! More GENIUS than Horowitz=The Genius Pianists=Sviatoslav Richter Solomon Cutner Grigory Sokplov Maurizio Pollini Alexei Lubimov Stanislav Igolinsky!! Igolinsky better than Dinu Lipatti! My Money My Vote My List says Igolinsky Better than Dinu Lipatti!!!
I do feel a bit ripped off by Sony. I bought the Complete Columbia recordings from them in the 90s. Supposedly that contained all material, even previously unreleased material, but alas, this concert wasn’t included.
Beethoven Sonate 28 op 101 Chopin Barcarole op 60; Nocturne op 55 no 1; Polonaise no 5 op 44 Scarlatti Sonaten K 101, K319, K 260, K 466, K 55 + ? Schumann Arabesque op 18 Rachmaninoff 2 études-tableaux Schumann Träumerei Chopin Mazurka op 7 No 3 Horowitz Carmen-Variationen (Bizet)
Wow, I have never heard Beethoven Op. 101 in the hands/fingers of Horowitz, and I am not sure what I think just yet. I never knew. Thank you for sharing this. I will have to listen again. Of course, some hate his Chopin, and he narrowed his scope of the Chopin he played in later years, but this sounds lovely so far. Horowitz' Scarlatti always sounds good to me. Rachmaninov goes without saying, and his encores always leave us wanting more. Thank you for uploading this. Very interesting concert.
thank you for pointing that out.. i caught myself avoiding engaging with this piece because i could/should start learning it, but just havent had devoted the attention to it. i guess procrastination-igonoring it =) it is sublime Horowitzian. is there anyone left today who could pull this off?
They are similar, I think. His interpretations are more unique and personal though. She makes fewer note mistakes. Maybe she is a better pianist but he is more imaginative.
Come on Meredith!.The Truth id Horowitz only ONE OF THE GREATEST PIANIST! The Truth is Horowitz NOT the Greatest!! More colorful beautiful piano sound than Horowitz=Wilhelm Kempff Emil Gilels Radu Lupu Artur Rubinstein Vladimir Adhkenazy!! MORE POWERFUL Louder.than Horowitz=Mikhail Pletnev The Most Powerful Loudest pianist ever!!=( Prokofiev Pianp concerto no 1 by Pletnev!! Pletnev The Nuclear BOMB POWER! NO-ONE.IS.CLOSE PLETNEV's POWER!!.PLETNEV A.CLASS OF HIS OWN!! The Second Loudest Hardest Hitter of The Keyboard was Lazar.Berman!! More Genius than Horowitz=Sviatoslav Richter Grigory Sokolov Solompn Cutner Maurizio Pollini Alexei.Lubimov Stanislav Igolinsky!!.Igolinsky.better than Dinu.Lipatti!.My Money My.Vote My List says Igolinsky.better.than Dinu Lipatti!!
Someone makes a comment about his Scarlatti playing here. If you hear the Pogorelich you will think it s all studio . such exact patterning of phrases in tone , the most stylish Scarlatti ever. Pletnev , Michelangeli never got a record out that sounds this perfect ! I'm no Pogorelich big fan but DeutscheG made the most amazing records with him ! Maybe its allfake but I saw a film a long time ago of his Ravel Gaspard and I still cant believe any jury could send hm home. ow many other "minds" have ended up teaching in conservaories . I wonder . Horowit's teacher also made some fine recordings in Europe .amazed at how much the Soviets recorded . Pianists no one even talks about who sometimes amaze here or there. Tornikova who died young a Goldenweiser pupil had something special ! The finale: Allegro really is wonderful . Now maybe I like it more than the Vivace Marcia which is such fabulous thinking music in every way ! Not Liszt,not Brahms certainly notMendellssohn followed Bethoven in his quartets orpiano sonatas. Chopin didn't get them .I knowLiszt did - but their personalities were so big they couldnt give us a continuation of his style. Reger -I will never get- there must really be something there. Pfitzner,even Korngold and all those romantics had some clssical standards they follow. Wagner is a shining star - so different in his impulses and musical judgements. That piano sonata - of his youth .I need to see and hear again . a chore Im sure !
I would love to know why are they laughing just before the last encore :) All and all, I was not impressed by the Beethoven reading, but Scarlatti, Chopin and Schumann pieces are stunners.
Horowitz often did small things that were humorous - little gestures and such that don't show up in audio and that's why the audience laughs on recordings. When I heard him in Carnegie in '85, a a pause in the Schubert-Liszt "Soiree de Vienne No. 6" he just kept floating his hand up, completely pointless and completely wonderfully. We all chuckled - and then came the ravishing playing.
Don't like the way it was recorded, I think the microphones are too close to the strings which make it sound very try. Compare the very same performance of the chopin nocturne registered from far away which gives you an impression of how horowitz sounded in a big hall (-> MichaelBrown)
