Cheese
Bitter lover
There are quite a few pianists I love – but let’s face it, there’s one I never tire of, the good old Volodja. Preferably live. One can never have enough Scriabin Etudes or Moszkovsky miniatures.
I own a few discs and would be interested to know what others might think of them, and suggestions are always welcome. So, my list :
I own a few discs and would be interested to know what others might think of them, and suggestions are always welcome. So, my list :
- Carnegie 1965 : A historic event, as it showed Horowitz for the first time live (in public) since 1957 I think. Impressive indeed except his Chopin which is not enough Parisian and too much Russian to my taste.
- Carnegie 1966 : Reportedly one of his best live recordings ever, but surprisingly difficult to find other than on s-h vinyl. I’m still looking for this, any hints are welcome.
- Horowitz at the Met : 1981, beautiful playing but truly horrible recording. The musician used to like a bell-like sound, OK, but this is so exaggerated it’s just painful.
- Horowitz Rediscovered Carnegie 1975: the sound ist just as bad, but also the performance is far from being memorable. I listened to it once or twice. For the record : ‘Richter Rediscovered’ by the same editor is also to be avoided. It looks like the companies wanted to make money by digging up second-rate performances.
- Horowitz in London 1981: listened to it a couple of times when I bought it, then shelved it for some reason. I can’t remember what was on it actually.
- Horowitz plays Rachmaninoff (maybe end of 60’s) : got that on vinyl, probably a mix of several evenings, but fantastic performances in every way (Sonata Nr. 2, Etudes-Tableaux etc.). Parts of it could be found later on a CD called Horowitz Rachmaninov Recital, but I am not sure the interpretations are exactly the same. The vinyl sounds a lot better by the way.
- Horowitz The Last Romantic: His debut recording for DG. Not exactly a live performance, but recorded (as well as filmed) at his home in Manhattan. The hype made around it was enormous, reviews were mixed at the time as his technique had seen better days – but nowadays I find most of it really charming in its own right.
- Horowitz the Poet: beautiful Kinderszenen but Brendel plays the D960 better, sorry. Great live sound this time.
- Horowitz in Moscow: Horowitz returns to Moscow, it was hyped up as if Nijinsky had been born again. Mixed reviews when it came out mid-80’s, but in my ears it has aged very well. My favourite to be honest, if it weren’t for the simply wonderful Scarlatti K87 which is mysteriously missing on the disc, although it can be found on youtube.
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