Horowitz Piano Roll Recordings
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Franz Liszt, Vladimir Horowitz, Fryderyk Chopin, Sergey Rachmaninov
Label: Condon Collection
Magazine Review Date: 7/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 60
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 690.07.009
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (24) Preludes, Movement: A minor, Op. 32/8 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| (24) Preludes, Movement: B minor, Op. 32/10 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Danse macabre (Saint-Saëns) |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Variations on a theme from Bizet's "Carmen" |
Vladimir Horowitz, Composer
Vladimir Horowitz, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Schwanengesang (Schubert), Movement: No. 10, Liebesbotschaft |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| (27) Etudes, Movement: E flat minor, Op. 10/6 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| (27) Etudes, Movement: C minor, Op. 25/12 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Waltz |
Vladimir Horowitz, Composer
Vladimir Horowitz, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Dumka (Russian rustic scene) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| (24) Preludes, Movement: G minor, Op. 23/5 |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Moment exotique (Danse excentrique) |
Vladimir Horowitz, Composer
Vladimir Horowitz, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Fantasia on two themes from Mozart's 'Le nozze di |
Franz Liszt, Composer
Franz Liszt, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
Composer or Director: Fryderyk Chopin
Label: Horowitz Collection
Magazine Review Date: 7/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 76
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: 09026 60987-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (4) Scherzos, Movement: No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20 (1831-32) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 38 in F sharp minor, Op. 59/3 (1845) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 26 in C sharp minor, Op. 41/1 (1838-40) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 32 in C sharp minor, Op. 50/3 (1842) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 40 in F minor, Op. 63/2 (1846) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 41 in C sharp minor, Op. 63/3 (1846) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Nocturnes, Movement: No. 3 in B, Op. 9/3 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Nocturnes, Movement: No. 4 in F, Op. 15/1 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| (4) Ballades, Movement: No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Waltzes, Movement: No. 3 in A minor, Op. 34/2 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Nocturnes, Movement: No. 19 in E minor, Op. 72/1 |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 7 in F minor, Op. 7/3 (1831) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| (16) Polonaises, Movement: No. 7 in A flat, Op. 61, 'Polonaise-fantaisie' |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
| (4) Scherzos, Movement: No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31 (1837) |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Vladimir Horowitz, Piano |
Author:
By the time Vladimir Horowitz died, he had become the Grand Old Man of Golden-Age pianism. But one easily forgets that in the 1950s and 1960s he was repeatedly harangued for his wilful handling of the great romantics, Chopin in particular. Yet, returning to his RCA Chopin recordings after a respectable break, one is overwhelmed anew by their originality, expressive power and sheer nerve. Pianistically, each performance—be it an intimate Mazurka or an inflammable Scherzo—harbours some inimitable instance of digital cunning, so much so that virtually every track on the RCA disc repays close scrutiny. Horowitz, like Ignaz Friedman before him, lavished immense imagination on even the smallest Mazurka: these are big, outspoken performances, dynamic in the extreme, and exquisitely coloured.
The live 1953 First Scherzo is very different to the studio recording that Horowitz made slightly earlier (RCA, 11/91): stormier, more fluid in its trio, and with an emphatically articulated return of the first section. The Second Scherzo is strong, clean and rather clipped: a somewhat later recording (made, like most of the Nocturnes, during Horowitz's 12-year sabbatical from the concert stage), it here sounds far better, less intrusively edited, than it did on LP. The livePolonaise-fantaisie is immense and free-wheeling, but like the Mazurkas and A minor Waltz (a 1945 recording, and not the live version from 1953) is rich in fancy and incident, while the Fourth Ballade is among the most clear-sighted and grandly conceived ever recorded.
My gratitude to RCA is offset by just one complaint: programming and documentation leave a great deal to be desired. Rather than arrange all Horowitz's Chopin chronologically, either by recording date or opus number (or, indeed, arrange the music by genre), RCA have so far given us random selections, with recording dates but no locations, and precious little cross-referencing between alternative versions of the same piece. And are we to expect all Horowitz's RCA Chopin (with, for example, both versions of the Fourth Ballade), or just 'most' of it? Granted that, ultimately, the value is in the music and the playing, I still think that collectors, like bon viveurs, appreciate a considerate serving manner and a well-organized menu.
The Condon Collection CD is useful in that it features repertoire that Horowitz never recorded on shellac or tape, including Liszt's re-workings of Mozart (his Figaro Fantasy) and Saint-Saens's Danse macabre (as opposed to the Liszt/Horowitz 1942 version on disc—RCA, 9/90) and his own F minor Waltz. But the Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon piano-roll systems were, on this showing, totally inadequate to the task of reporting Horowitz's sensitive touch, his teasing rubato and, most conspicuously, the thunderous sonority of his fortissimo playing. There is a certain ring of truth about the way chords are placed, the way they fall, but comparing tracks where shellac alternatives exist (Tchaikovsky Dumka, Rachmaninov G minor Prelude, Carmen Variations, etc.) confirms a far stronger profile and infinitely greater pianistic control on the 78s. We know from Horowitz's records that he did occasionally revise his interpretations, but even in old age his playing never lost its fundamental strength and profile, and that's just what's missing here. Interesting, but no more than that.'
The live 1953 First Scherzo is very different to the studio recording that Horowitz made slightly earlier (RCA, 11/91): stormier, more fluid in its trio, and with an emphatically articulated return of the first section. The Second Scherzo is strong, clean and rather clipped: a somewhat later recording (made, like most of the Nocturnes, during Horowitz's 12-year sabbatical from the concert stage), it here sounds far better, less intrusively edited, than it did on LP. The live
My gratitude to RCA is offset by just one complaint: programming and documentation leave a great deal to be desired. Rather than arrange all Horowitz's Chopin chronologically, either by recording date or opus number (or, indeed, arrange the music by genre), RCA have so far given us random selections, with recording dates but no locations, and precious little cross-referencing between alternative versions of the same piece. And are we to expect all Horowitz's RCA Chopin (with, for example, both versions of the Fourth Ballade), or just 'most' of it? Granted that, ultimately, the value is in the music and the playing, I still think that collectors, like bon viveurs, appreciate a considerate serving manner and a well-organized menu.
The Condon Collection CD is useful in that it features repertoire that Horowitz never recorded on shellac or tape, including Liszt's re-workings of Mozart (his Figaro Fantasy) and Saint-Saens's Danse macabre (as opposed to the Liszt/Horowitz 1942 version on disc—RCA, 9/90) and his own F minor Waltz. But the Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon piano-roll systems were, on this showing, totally inadequate to the task of reporting Horowitz's sensitive touch, his teasing rubato and, most conspicuously, the thunderous sonority of his fortissimo playing. There is a certain ring of truth about the way chords are placed, the way they fall, but comparing tracks where shellac alternatives exist (Tchaikovsky Dumka, Rachmaninov G minor Prelude, Carmen Variations, etc.) confirms a far stronger profile and infinitely greater pianistic control on the 78s. We know from Horowitz's records that he did occasionally revise his interpretations, but even in old age his playing never lost its fundamental strength and profile, and that's just what's missing here. Interesting, but no more than that.'
Horowitz Piano Roll Recordings
Horowitz plays Chopin, Vol.3
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