Customer Reviews

Horowitz in Hamburg: The Last Concert

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For those familiar with Vladimir Horowitz's televised recital from Vienna a few weeks prior to this one, both the repertoire and the manner of performance will be similar. There are a few differences in details, which mainly spring from the differences between Vienna's Golden Hall and Hamburg's Music Hall, which is "dryer" acoustically.

By 1987, Horowitz had stripped his playing of much of the artifice which marred the performances he gave while in his 70s. Gone were the bizarre rubati and general obliteration of structure, and in their place was an unforced spontaneity and balance between tension and relaxation. A case in point is Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, which Horowitz recorded several times. Horowitz's two studio renderings, from 1950 and 1962, are fairly straightforward accounts, with occasional lapses into pianistic micromanagement and hints of nervousness when there should be relaxation. A 1982 live recording is almost the opposite, with nonsensical rubatos, distended ritards, slack rhythm, and almost no coherence. But here, in 1987, Horowitz has pulled himself together and plays with simplicity, controlled freedom, and conviction. It is often said that the elderly sometimes return to a childlike state. In old age, Horowitz had achieved communion with Schumann's visions of childhood lost. Horowitz still dared, however, to look beyond the printed page and interpret the music. Few pianists have ever dared to make Chopin's Mazurka in B Minor sound so sassy and sexy.

As far as technical matters go, Horowitz's fingers are fully up to the task of his chosen repertoire. By now, the octogenarian realized he was no longer capable of sustained virtuoso fireworks, so he often substituted finesse and coloration for bravura. The balance and evenness of his passagework, his incredible control of lower levels of dynamics, and ear for pedaling remain unrivaled. There are, however, tiny memory lapses which occur during the early part of the concert (and in almost the exact same places as occurred in his Vienna concert). However, these are not greatly distracting and can be easily forgiven, and they are nowhere near as pronounced as those I witnessed at Claudio Arrau's last Boston recital. Only note perfect pedants will cry foul.

DG includes a note indicating that one work, Schubert's Impromptu, D 899, No. 3 was not included in the broadcast or this recording due to technical reasons. However, my understanding is that it was omitted due to an audience member who became ill and had to leave, which created a noisy distraction.

Copies of this recital, which was broadcast, have been circulating among collectors for years. However, radio broadcasts are typically compressed and this was no exception. For this release, DG has gone to the uncompressed master tape, which sounds entirely natural, with ideal microphone placement that brings Horowitz into the room. So, even if you have the "pirate" tape, it's well worth getting this CD.

I concur with the other 5-star reviewers. Horowitz plays magnificently, and gone are the maddening eccentricities that were prevalent in his 1970's performances. Recording live classical concerts is a risky proposition, as quite often they are compromised by odd sound balances and dry acoustics. The Deutsche Grammophon recording engineers - arguably the best for live concerts - captured this one perfectly. Sitting next to the speakers and closing your eyes while listening to this disc... well, it's like you're at this concert in a front-row seat. A wonderful addition to any classical music collection.

This disc is not just the record of a recital, it is the record of a major musical event. Horowitz did not intend this concert to be his last, but his last it proved to be, the final curtain on an amazing career. He was something special, and for reasons that were entirely musical, but I'm not sure that the descriptions I have read of his playing quite give the true flavour of it. In terms of sheer virtuosity he was certainly as astonishing as we are often told, but even at his peak he was not actually quite the equal of Cziffra in that respect. Late in his career he compared himself modestly as a technician with a number of younger keyboard tigers, saying that they could play more accurately but ten minutes of listening to them was enough. `At least I sound different' said he. Indeed. He did it his way.

In his last concert he is still sounding different from anyone else, although still recognisably the same Horowitz who had left audiences dumbfounded half a century earlier. He starts with two works by Mozart, and I love his Mozart. The back of the disc box calls Mozart `his great new love', but I'd say that's not really accurate. Right from the start of his career Horowitz's recitals used to feature sonatas by Mozart and Haydn, and that was not something that Rachmaninov, say, did. Horowitz shows any amount of delicacy here, but it was part of his view of the composer that the works benefited from the extra resources of the mighty modern grand piano at appropriate points. I support him wholeheartedly in this view. It reminds me of the saying of Richard Strauss `Mozart is so beautiful that people forget he is powerful.' I only wish the liner note had taken a moment or two out from eulogising the player to tell us something about an extraordinary feature of the finale of the sonata. This comes to a pause on a 6/4 chord as classical concertos do by way of introducing the cadenza, and the music that follows is unmistakably a cadenza in style. Did Mozart write this? If not who did?

Schumann's Kinderszenen was a long-time favourite with Horowitz, and when you listen to Trauemerei or Der Dichter spricht you will, I'm sure, understand why many of us felt that run-of-the-mill oohs and ahs from reviewers about Horowitz's finger-technique were obscuring something at least as important, namely his exquisite lyrical manner. On the same lines, you will hear some fine old virtuosity in the Schubert/Liszt number, but some touching tenderness in the little encore where Schubert is allowed to speak and sing for himself. The other encore is Moszkowski's Etincelles, and the old showman still knows how to bring the house down.

There are two Chopin numbers, one the B minor mazurka. I also have this from Michelangeli, and the two giants could not be more unlike in their interpretations. From Horowitz, here as in the great warhorse the A flat polonaise, you will hear effects of rubato and of touch that would not pass for politically correct nowadays. So much for nowadays, say I. Horowitz sounds different, and all too many people sound much the same nowadays.

He meant to come back, but providence decided otherwise. He was of my parents' generation, but he was still a legend to my own. The encroachment of oblivion is inevitable, and it is only healthy that a new generation of music lovers should not take their seniors' enthusiasms as some infallible guide to their own taste. Myself, as soon as I hear the little upwards run near the start of the Mozart rondo I feel the special tingle-factor that comes from the unique style of Horowitz. Gone from us since this concert, but immortal all the same.

Just to say.. I'm drooling about this cd, the quality of this man kept me speechless while I play it since recived... I probably sound myself silly, but this performance touched me, perhaps is the knowledge that this was his last recording, the atmosphere at the concert hall, the pressence of the artist, and the magic that those well known musical treats transformed by those hands... all of those!

Horowitz is the consummate pianist. His technique and interpretation is unmatched. The only problem with this CD is that it is his last.

A wonderful coda to a wonderful life. Given his sense of humour, Horowitz would have found hysterical the fact that Amazon is advertising it alongside a recording by the let's just say musically and technically disadvantaged Lang Lang.

The last performance of Horowitz in Hamburg is great!

Thank you!

WL

Vladimir Horowitz is one of the greatest pianists to ever live. For pianists who embrace things pianistic in the repertoire, he is immortal. For those whose credo is different, he often is still a huge force to be reckoned with. Therefore, listening to his last public performance is an act practically required of a musician who finds it important to follow this fascinating career and life completely to the end. Horowitz's musical ideas, his inspirations, and the tone he brings from the piano are present, full-force, in this recital, and much of his playing is less mannered and more to-the-point than his other renditions of these same works. In addition to that, he is more tired, weaker, stiffer, and less accurate than other late performances I have heard. Whether you are new to Horowitz, or have eagerly sought out every note he has played for many years, buy this disc as an hommage to an immortal, and become acquainted with his other recordings of the same repertoire. This great pianist has had an effect on virtually every artist who has heard him.