 "An auditory treasure!" | 2009-08-19 |
| - Reviewed By lzigman2 |
| I bought the DVD of this concert, and decided to purchase the CD as well. It is a glorious, sumptuous auditory delight to listen to. Mr. Horowitz never, ever lost his incredible piano playing ability. It was a truly magnificent gift he had which gave (and still gives) so much pleasure to those who like classical music. Highly recommended to all who enjoy hearing this "master of the keyboard", and particularly those who enjoy listening to Mr. Horowitz' playing. |
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| "No One Rocked Chopin like Horowitz" | 2009-05-29 |
| - Reviewed By dwoncisz2 |
I was driving some snowbird's Cadillac from Miami to NYC via driveaway-truckaway back in the late 80's. I drove up A1A past the Kennedy mansion(s) and the PGA golf course West Palm... I dipped in St. Augustine, gave a quick shout out to my folks in the Bible Belt, got lost at a turn off in DC... Took a quick nap off the NJ Turnpike. All the while I had no idea of where this latest trek of my annual pilgrimage would end.
I arrived at the parking garage of an apartment building on the upper east side; parked the vehicle where instructed, and took the elevator up to the residence so that the car could be inspected for damage and I could get my deposit back. A butler answered the door and invited me into the foyer... "Whoa".
Before me stood two beautiful shiny black Baby Grand Pianos back to back and opened. On the wall was a photo of the man himself. A moment later an elderly couple came into the room. The gentleman held a check out to me. I totally freaked. "MR. HOROWITZ!" "NO WAY!" I grabbed his delicate hands into mine and held them. "I can't believe this... I love you!" Mr. Horowitz and his wife (and the butler's) facial expression went from terror to delight, thankfully.
I had a million things to tell him, and little time. I explained how I watched him playing Chopin on PBS when I was a little girl, with my older cousin Carol, who went from gospel piano to classical and a scholarship to Julliard's because of the way Horowitz inspired her playing Chopin's nocturnes with such soul; just like gospel has so much soul. I told him that my oldest grandfather made his sole living as a jazz pianist and even in the last stages of Alzheimer's when he knew no one around him, and could no longer head the senior band in his Poconos community, several times a day in the senior home he always went straight to the piano and played like a pro. I told him that my grandfather always said music was his first and only true love.
I told Mr. Horowitz that as a student in my day, NYC Public schools had the money and committment to take us to Carnegie, the Met-Ops, Guggenheim, Broadway shows, etc. which continued my interest in the arts, and that I've seen people play classical live in many halls around the world since, but no one did Chopin justice like Mr. Horowitz, in my opinion.
Mr. Horowitz and his wife indulged me, perhaps because I wasn't from the usual gallery of admirers and visitors. I hugged them both before leaving and shook the wonderful butler's hand. Mr. Horowitz, a fragile elderly man, poised between those two big beautiful Baby Grand's struck me as David conquering Goliath. I wasn't bold enough to ask if he would play a quick sonata, (but it did cross my mind).
Elated, I jumped on the subway to my lower east side NY residence; had some kasha varnishkas with mushroom gravy at Odessa's where I told my friends all about my big adventure. I should have never cashed that deposit check, but I was too young and broke after my slow ride up the east coast. A few months later, I listened to Horowitz tapes on my walkman and reminisced while in Warsaw at the memorial park with the monument dedicated to Chopin (Lazienki Park, I believe) and I thought how cool life is when you just live it. |
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| "Horowitz in Moscow: in words of an eyewitness" | 2009-01-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3F0PJ13ABC74 |
I decided to add my post and describe my impressions, since I was there at the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and listened to Horowitz on April 20, 1986. I could not imagine that after some 20 years I would write these lines on the amazon.com.
May I at once say that there has never been a cult of Horowitz in this country. Our own cult figures, Richter and Gilels, were very critical of him, and our piano teachers advised against imitating Horowitz and blamed his taste. Local pianophils had other models in mind - either Russian (Rachmaninov, Sofronitsky etc) or German (Schnabel, Gieseking, Backhaus etc). Local collectionists had Horowitz LPs, but few opinions concerning them were shared: only Horowitz' Scarlatti and Clementi were generally welcome. But at the time of his concert all that was forgotten and everyone was electricised: the chance to see a legend and a former compatriot was enticing. I remember how difficult it was to get through the crowd and pass through the guards. The hall was overcrowded, people sitting in all the aisles.
The recital started with a big delay: some overfree figures (sound engineers) trying the piano and testing the equipment were on the scene. Finally, they disappeared and Horowitz came to light. From the first beat it became clear that his approach to music was different from what we had heard on most of his CDs: the phrasing was convincing, the playing more inward and the pianist was cherishing each note as a treasure. The program was thought-of cleverly. He started with Scarlatti and Mozart KV 330 - both were fine, but Rachmaninov and Scriabin, especially the latter, were a real deal: after such ravishing performances he could play virtually everything and get a stormy applause. Certainly, Chopin's Mazurkas were excellent, too. Today I am less fond of both Liszt items (the so called `Petrarca 104 sonetto' and Soirée No. 6), but I enjoyed them when I was sitting in the hall.
Comparing this recital with Horowitz other sound documents from the same period, I can confirm that he was in a good form. One of the reviewers above wrote about the `magical connection with the average listeners', when `the performer and the audience feed on each other'. Of course, that evening the inspiration was with him. But he also had rehearsed each item a lot and anticipated this concert as a big event. I happened to hear a fragment of his playing at the Scriabin museum close to the date of this recital: it was disappointing. And keep in mind that two Scriabin studies (Op. 8/2 and Op. 2/1) were probably the most successful items in the Great Hall on April 20, 1986.
Hank Drake kindly reminds in his review that some items, incl. Rachmaninoff G major Prelude and Polka, and Schubert-Liszt Soirées de Vienne came not from the actual recital, but from the public rehearsal two days before the concert. I have not been there, so I cannot compare the two variants (I wonder who, except for the DG engineers, can). But I can confirm that all these items were *not* the most successful ones in the recital. I definitely enjoyed the G sharp minor Prelude more than the G major one when I was sitting in the hall: I still think it was a thrilling performance of this masterpiece.
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 "The "Screamin' Demon" of the keyboard botches more music" | 2008-08-27 |
| - Reviewed By madamemusico |
| Horowitz wouldn't know musical phrasing if you put a gun to his head. If you just like to hear shapeless pounding on the keyboard, however, this disc is for you. If not, there are tons of worthwhile alternatives. |
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 "Great performance, well recorded, poorly edited" | 2008-06-23 |
| - Reviewed By ashirsh |
| Most tracks end with applause which is immediately cut off. Very jarring. Total time is less than 60 minutes; plenty of room to have included an extra few seconds for each track to fade out gracefully. |
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| "The master returns to his birthplace!" | 2007-07-28 |
| - Reviewed By higopa |
The powerful fingering of Vladimir Horowitz was his greatest personal landmark, well apart of other lavish gifts and skills. The artistic closeness with Arturo Toscanini, Fritz Reiner, Anal Dorati or Dmitri Mitropulos (or Paul van Kempen and De Sabata on the other side of the ocean), for instance based on a sharp way to conceive, feel and interpret the music, literally shocked and even molded an approach featured by grasping expansiveness of sound, a rough timber, rediscovering the sonorous possibilities supported by a basic instinct around the music gained them nay praised comments around the world.
Somehow this was not only a robust reply to a decaying Impressionism, but somhow it was the reverse of the romantic side of the coin.
This musical mainstream permeated the musical thought of many performers (from William Kapell to Leon Fleisher) and it was a perfect match respect the composers by then (Bartok, Nielsen, Hindemith, Busoni) where the music meant too a symbol of epic resistance.
This attitude maintained until the early seventies, when the elegance of the sound and the absence of fortissimos in the most Symphonies of Beethoven, were substituted by sonorous ellipsis and tonal brightness, leaving side a mercurial energy so essential in Beethoven, Bruckner or bartok, but extremely important in Mahler, Henze or Stravinsky.
However Vlada knew to maintain that kindred closeness with Scriabin and Chopin, making of him a true revelation in what the resonance of every bar, giving a feverous state of spiritual effervescence and renowned lyricism.
With the arrival of the new musical generations from diverse latitudes, behind the iron curtain the musical tradition literally had held in a sort of transition state due the isolation, the existential anguish and uncertainness respect the future.
That's why the Horowitz sound has deserved a place in the history of music, beloved by many, and hated for others, but keeping a faithful attitude of honesty and conviction about the material they were playing.
With these performances in the winter of his life, Horowitz was said goodbye to the century of fear and the horror when motivated by the call of his birthland, he decided to return to Moscow, to be known by a new generation, who knew about him and his circumstance. But that never were exception witnesses.
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