Customer Reviews

Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon [Box Set]

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This set includes all of the recordings Vladimir Horowitz did for Deutsche Grammophon in the 1980s, including his historical concert in Moscow.

While the context of his return in Moscow is moving, the studio recordings are simply wonderful. The sound quality is impeccable. The Steinway piano sounds warm but yet crisp and sharp. Horowitz still has plenty of power, and if you don't have a good sound system, you will notice that your speakers will literally fail, due to the overwhelming wall of sound that Horowitz creates in the intense parts.

The tender moments are just as exciting, as they are enhanced by the very quiet and clear digital recording process. Liszt's Standchen and Mozart's Piano Concerto No 23 are only two of a myriad of highlights contained on this boxed set. Having these high quality digital recordings of this piano legend is a blessing that you can't afford to miss. And at this price, it's simply irresistible.

For those of you with a larger budget, don't forget the complete masterworks recordings (1962-73) of Vladimir Horowitz on Sony Classical.

I was fortunate enough to find this collection used for only 20 bucks, and I would easily pay more for it. This set contains the albums Horowitz at Home, Horowitz in Moscow, Horowitz plays Mozart, The Last Romantic, Horowitz the Poet, and the 1985 studio recordings. All of the music is superb and you will see it frequently released in Horowitz compilation cds. I highly recommend this collection for any Horowitz lover or as a collection to get into Horowitz.

For reasons perhaps reflecting what may very well be a coming collapse of classical music pricing and distribution, bargains of an almost too good to be true nature continue to emerge on Amazon. This certainly is one! With the already very reasonable price slashed by half, you can now purchase all six Horowitz discs making up his recordings for DG for a little over twenty-five dollars. It's a buyer's market!

This set includes the famous Moscow Concert, a number of selections of pieces Horowtiz did very well, including Schumann, Liszt, Chopin, Scarlatti, and Scriabin, and even includes a Mozart Concerto, with large-scaled backing by Giulini. By this time in his career Horowitz plays more reflectively; the huge passionate outbursts of his salad days, with thunderous dynamics and blazing tempos are not the main attraction. One should absolutely not expect the reincarnation of, say, live concerts with Horowitz and Toscanini! Instead, perhaps channeling late Liszt, Horowitz seems at his best here when playing music requiring reflection and poetry.

Of course, this IS still Horowitz the virtouso - despite his age at the time of these recordings, around eighty - there's still plenty of pyrotechnics, though I find them more careful, and with a few bald spots showing through when he strives for more full sonorites and explosions. Opinions differ on the DG sound - Horowitz apparently never made life easy for the engineers, and there is some variance here, with some of the results not at all the equal of the best modern recordings.

If you don't yet have the Cd of the legendary return to Moscow Concert, or any of Horowitz's other late DGs, this is a great chance to hear them at an extremely modest cost.

The Vladimir Horowitz who emerged from retirement in 1985 was a very different pianist and musician than the one who had disappeared in 1983. Long gone were the leonine fortissimos and hysteria of the 1940s; also purged was the eccentricity that became a dominating factor in the 1970s; Horowitz had replaced these with a new balance and simplicity. He was never a puritan thank goodness, but "controlled freedom" (as Harold Schonberg phrased it) became the hallmark of the playing of Horowitz's last few years.

The highlights of this set are too numerous to list in toto, but a few standouts are 1985's Kreisleriana, much of the Moscow recital, Mozart's Sonatas K. 281 and 333, and the Schubert-Liszt works - especially Standchen, which may well be Horowitz's best post-1980 recording. Other recordings fall into a middle ground: Mozart's K. 330 Sonata (the live 1986 slightly preferable to the dryish 1985 version), and the K. 488 Concerto with Giulini (demoted from a top recommendation due to the non-descript, tonally un-alluring orchestra). Schubert's D. 960 Sonata, rejected by Horowitz and issued posthumously, is a fussy, contrived performance that should have remained in the vault as the pianist wished.

Unavoidably, in view of the varying locations, the quality of recorded sound varies - from the constricted, dry sonority of The Last Romantic to the atmospheric quality of the 1985 Studio Recordings. Most occupy a middle ground - clearly focused, but far from the "microphone in the piano" sound of RCA's late 1970s recordings.

Potential buyers should be aware that, for relatively little extra cost, a newer version of this compilation is available that includes the 1987 Hamburg recital (Horowitz's last) and a few bonus tracks.

Very good material at a very reasonable price, fast and efficient shiping,would deal with this merchant without any reservations whatsoever.

Ce merveilleux coffret édité à prix doux chez D.G comble de bonheur ; Horowitz est habité par l'aisanece et la facilité ; tout semble simple en l'acoutant jouer ce répertoire qu'il maitrise à fond pour l'avoir interprété mendant tant d'années ; il est incomparable dans Mozart, Schumann, et dans ces sonates de Sacarlatti si difficiles à jouer en dépit de leur simplicité apparente. Son Chopin est bouleversant d'émotion, Liszt ne hurle pas ! Quelques pièces de Rachmaninov et Scriabin qu'il joue avec un tempérament si russe, si slave. Enfin le bonheur est total avec l'enregistrement du concert de Moscou : quelle émotion que d'entendre les silences de la salle contenue par autant de génie, pour des retrouvailles historiques.
Rien à dire sur les qualités techniques d'enregistrement ; c'est tout simplement parfait, mais les ingénieurs du son de chez D.G. devaient savoir à quoi s'attendre ! Enfin, pour l'anecdote, les audiophiles noteront une similarité indéniable sur le "son" proprement dit du piano du Maitre : celui de son propre Steinway qui le suivait, partout où il jouait. Une exigence de star bien comprise, dans notre intérêt et notre bénéfice exclusif.
Amis Français, tant que le Dollar est faible, commandez sur Amazon.com

If you have any Horowitz music in your collection. THEN YOU MUST GET THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS ON DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON. Quality of recording is superb.