Customer Reviews

Horowitz at the Met

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The original release of Horowitz at the Met was one of the first CDs I bought when I got my first player in 1986. The clarity and beauty of sound was nothing short of astonishing back then. RCA has remastered the recording using the latest technology and for me the results are varied: The dynamic range is dramatically increased, but the hall ambiance seems to have been almost eliminated.

Whatever one's opinion of the sound, the recording captures Horowitz in his autumnal prime in works he was obviously comfortable with. Horowitz almost single handedly ressurected Scarlatti, and his approach to these elusive works consistenly illuminates. He almost never embellished the text, but provides more than enough variety with an endless pallette of tone colors.

Horowitz seemed more at home in Chopin's Ballade No. 4 than he did in the first Ballade. The phrasing, dynamics, and dramatic build up are just so "right" here, that one can scarcely imagine a better performance--even with the occasional minor slip of finger.

Liszt's Ballade is more bombastic than anything else. Horowitz fills the work with such epic "mad-scientist" fury, one can actually take the work seriously, at least until the track ends.

The Chopin Waltz combines both--very different--editions of Chopin's text, with perhaps a dash of Horowitz's melancholy.

The Rachmaninoff Prelude has a swinging beat that one seldom hears from this piece. The central section is as sexily voiced as a siren's song. The applause at the end is most welcome.

One of Horowitz's most rewarding discs. I don't like the remastering work here much either, but it's still a first-rate recording. The first issue had a more authentic sound. Audiophile concerns, however, are the least important aspect attending a recording like this. The playing is stupendous in every way - magisterial and lighthearted at once! For all his natural Russian bluff (something essential to his art, and hardly a disparaged excess), Horowitz is ultimately a color man, and a singer when he plays; his Scarlatti in fact owes everything to the opera, so layered with detail, and delight of the 'first' voices. When I hear Horowitz's Chopin, I often think of Guiomar Novaes- not the same movement of sound, but the same ideal of singing in the playing. The 'L'Adieu' is perfect art here, the kind Horowitz never failed to honor with his Chopin. A good deal of what we truly love about Horowitz's playing is of course the pianos he uses, why not say it?! HE would! This recording at the Met illustrates that principle in beautiful proportions; the sound of the instrument (I suspect it's the one from his home?) is a constant joy throughout the recording, especially on the first issue CD. The second half of the program here is both ambitious and safe (I think the programming finer on the Moscow concert), but it's the Scarlatti that means the most; those sonatas like a row of little jewelled houses living under the sun are each a testament to the greatness of this man's pianistic art. Not only that, Horowitz was an enormously cultured man of constant individuality; the elegance of a legacy comprised of uncompromising musical taste and consummate daring speaks louder than the shadow of an almost savant facility. I think he was one of music's rare beings - this recording so testifies. Don't wait.

Admittedly, I am no expert on the classics and hadn't heard anything that's on this CD before, and only bought it to hear the "24/96" audiophile sound. That said, it's a great performance, all the more so when you consider Horowitz was 78 at the time. And the sound...it is just the best, most realistic, most musical piano sound I have ever heard on any CD. It sounds like a grand piano is in the room. When Horowitz does the thundering low scales in the Liszt piece, the intensity and sound quality will thrill you. And the more sedate pieces also sound wonderful. Lots of praise has to go to the technical people responsible for this reissue...and all you have to do to marvel at the results of their work is buy this CD.

This is the first time I heard the 24/96 audiophile recording. It feels so real and sounds much better than a regular 20/44 CD. I hope some of the great Horowitz recordings can be released again on this format. I will have no hesitation to buy any Horowitz recordings on this format.

His Chopin, there is a little bit of mannerism and too spontaneou. Well, even Liszt himself was a showman after all. Horowitz had to earn his living by concertizing before he was emotionally ready, and then having to flee from his motherland and later losing his only child and then the onset of horror for the stage... these all help to explain his demonic, which is so daring and sometimes even at the expense of the necessary emotional import, sometimes more amusing than touching...

Horowitz is unique, too sensual perhaps, but never dry. Here Horowitz gave his best keeping the balance between mannerism and dryness. Better than most of his middle age recordings. First rate, no question about that. What is more, the audio sound here is excellent. Recommended.

This is Horowitz at his best. Starts off with 6 Scarlatti sonatas, and then moves on to a wonderful interpretation of Chopin's 4th Ballade. The Liszt 2nd Ballade follows and is easily one of the definitive interpretations of the work. Ending with a Chopin Waltz and a Rachmaninoff prelude this Recital remains timeless.