Horowitz’s final public appearance after a career of nearly seven decades is ipso facto a poignant souvenir d’occasion. Taped by North German Radio (NDR), it has, somewhat mysteriously, lain virtually untouched in their archives for more than 20 years (only the Moment musical has been issued when it appeared on DG’s “The Magic of Horowitz” in 2003). Perhaps because it consists of (over-?) familiar Horowitz repertoire it was thought that holding it back would be a prudent marketing strategy.

A virtual repeat of the programmes he had played in Amsterdam and Vienna (May 1987) and Berlin (June 7), the Hamburg concert reveals little new in repertoire or execution from the recordings of these pieces taped at the pianist’s home in 1985 and ’86, even if his tempi are almost consistently slightly slower in Hamburg. There are exceptions: the Mozart Rondo sparkles and sings in a way that the New York version does not; the haunting first movement of K333 is played, unlike in New York, without the repeat of the development section (much better – and the whole performance is less fussy).

Kinderszenen remains as fresh and beguiling as ever and, for once, Horowitz does not over-complicate his beloved “Träumerei”. The Moment musical, too, is preferable to the “home recording” – simpler, more direct – benefiting, as does the whole concert, from the superior acoustics of Hamburg’s Musikhalle.

Earlier versions of two further Horowitz favourites, the A flat Polonaise and Etincelles, are more technically secure than here, but one still comes away dazzled by the unique sonority, imagination and élan of this extraordinary musician.