As one who has been rather disappointed by some recent Harowitz performances, I am happy to salute this issue warmly for its special qualities of pianism and sheer personality. The Russian master rarely shows his 81 years in this recital recorded during his historic return to his native country after an absence of no less than 60 years. Indeed, he is on fine form, and although all save 400 of the 1,800 seats were reserved for government and diplomatic dignitaries I am delighted that some 200 students managed to gatecrash their way on to the balcony even though a slight price has to be paid for this—as the disc booklet puts it, in the Scarlatti Sonata at the start we hear ''the sound of Soviet police trying, in vain, to remove the students from the balcony. The students held their ground, the police retreated.'' There are quite a few audience coughs and rustles too throughout.
The Scarlatti is a delight, crisp and flexible in the right proportions and a perfect starter for the recital. And the Mozart Sonata is good too: a far better performance than the rather mannered one Horowitz recorded in his own apartment in New York in April 1985 (DG 419 045-1GH; CD 419 045-2GH, 5/86), though still for my taste a bit too self-consciously winsome in the Andante cantabile. The Rachmaninov G sharp minor Prelude (which is also in that 1985 recital) has the same extra beats and bass doublings as before—and doubtless always will have—and of course aficionados will have to accept a little duplication when they acquire this CD to join that previous one. Among the many especial pleasures here is the first of the Scriabin etudes (the D sharp minor is too splashy and capricious, though received rapturously), and we know that one of the few excursions Horowitz made during his Moscow visit was to Scriabin's house, where the composer's daughter now lives. Other bonnes bouches are the Liszt Valse-Caprice No. 6, with a new ending presumably by the pianist, and Petrarch Sonnet 104, as well as Schumann's Traumerei: but the larger-than-life panache of this playing is a pleasure almost everywhere. Be prepared for much applause, e.g. 18 seconds of it after the first Liszt piece, and cries of ''bravo'' which could prove tiresome on repeated listening: oddly enough, the applause after the last piece is faded more quickly than one might expect. But Horowitz's playing won't pall, always provided—of course—that you enjoy pianism in the unashamedly grand manner.'