necessary recordingAlong with the extramusical significance of the aged Horowitz’s return to his erstwhile homeland, there’s a great deal here for seekers of the necessary Horowitz. Perhaps his finest Mozart recording, the C-major Sonata, gets a forward-moving reading discerned by an Andante Cantabile motion that sings the music with the tonal splendor and command of line characteristic of the beloved bel canto singers of the past whom Horowitz looked to as musical models. The program’s remainder is as formidable, and only a curmudgeon could fail to smile with delight at a bestloved Horowitz encore, Rachmaninoff’s Polka de W.R. –Dan Davis
A Horowitz Recital 2 Pic
A Horowitz Recital 2 Picture
A Horowitz Recital 2 Photo
A Horowitz Recital 2 Picture
A Horowitz Recital 2 Image
A Horowitz Recital 2 Pic
Most helpful customer reviews
43 of 43 people found the following review helpful.
 The CD captures a historical event in music
By Joanna Daneman
There are famous historical events in music that resonate down through the centuries; the debut of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the premier performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring that resulted in a riot in Paris. The return of Russian-born Vladimir Horowitz to Moscow on Sunday, April 20, 1986 was such an event. After 60 years, one of the world’s greatest pianists returned to play for his former homeland. It was big news. It still is.
This cd is a recording of the live event, and opens with the Scarlatti E Major Sonata. Horowitz championed the music of Scarlatti and played it as no one else ever had, so this is a wonderful piece to begin with. But it’s the Scriabin that I come back for, time and again, to listen to this CD. There are two etudes on this album (Op. 2#1 and Op. 8 #12.) All the romance, transient dissonance, moodiness and melodic richness of Scriabin are here, played by a pianist whose sound is like no one else’s. Even if you aren’t an afficionado of music history, this is an important CD as it is a live performance and has a really good representative selection of the Horowitz type of repertoire, from Rachmaninoff, Scriabin to Scarlatti, Liszt, Schumann (another Horowitz speciality) and even a Moszkowski showpiece. This is piano history at its pinnacle.
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Horowitz in Moscow: in words of an eyewitness
By Anton Zimmerling
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.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Unforgettable…
By Hank Drake
Vladimir Horowitz’s April 20, 1986 Moscow recital has become so legendary that further comment seems superfluous.
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