Customer Reviews

Late Russian Romantics

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Volume Nine of Sony's Horowitz reissue contains music by the pianist's fellow countrymen Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, and Mednter which show the virtuoso at the zenith of his powers.

Horowitz, who at the age of eleven met the Scriabin, once described the composer's music as "super-sensuous, super-mysterious, super-romantic. It's all a little bit overboard." The pianist was ideally suited by temperament to play that Scriabin's highly charged, nervous music. Horowitz once described Scriabin's music as "super-sensuous, super-mysterious, super-romantic. It's all a little bit overboard." There have been numerous pianists who have equaled Horowitz's Scriabin technically (most notably Marc-Andre Hamelin) but none have captured the breathless, nervous quality of this music as has Horowitz.

The Scriabin selections were recorded at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in 1972. Part of the success of Horowitz's Scriabin is his clarity, both musical and technical. The pianist adopts an almost structural approach to these works, which runs against the tendency by some others to slather them in Romantic excess. Horowitz uses less sustaining pedal than is customary in these works (as in the stunning Etude in Thirds, Op. 8, No. 10), although one would never think of calling Horowitz's Scriabin "dry." In the later more mystical works, he uses slightly more pedal, but never drowns the work in sustaining syrup as all too many pianists do. Even in Scriabin's most twisted melodic and pianistic contortions, clarity and balance are maintained. Horowitz also manages to produce a stunning fortissimo (as in Vers la Flamme) without hammering the piano to death or throwing the lines out of balance.

The Medtner Fairy Tale heard here was originally released on a Goodyear Tire promotional record in Christmas of 1969, but never attained widespread release until 1992. Horowitz's boisterous, flirtatious performance gets to the heart of the matter. Although the pianist gave all-Medtner recitals before leaving Russia in 1925, and occasionally programmed Medtner's works in the 1930s and early 1940s, his advocacy of the composer doesn't seemed to have gained any headway in his lifetime. Sadly, this is the only Horowitz Medtner recording to have been released.

Horowitz idolized Rachmaninoff, and the elder pianist/composer admired Horowitz in a kind of uncle/nephew way. The two had a close friendship from 1928 until the composer's death in 1943, and it was Rachmaninoff who sought out psychological help for Horowitz after the pianist's nervous breakdown in 1936. Rachmaninoff often had a complicated relationship with his own compositions. Such was the case with the Second Sonata which was composed in 1913, and severely revised in 1931, when the composer was placing greater value in brevity. Horowitz had played the Second Sonata (in the original version) at his conservatory graduation recital in 1920, and felt that the 1931 revision was too drastically cut. Rachmaninoff, who was never fully satisfied with either version of the piece, agreed and left it to Horowitz to put together a "compromise" version for his own performances. Unfortunately, we have no recording of his 1940 performances (the head of RCA, Charles O'Connell, no fan of either Horowitz or Rachmaninoff, scotched plans for the pianists to record the composer's Second Suite for two pianos and the two piano version of the Symphonic Dances) and therefore we have no record of the revisions Rachmaninoff approved. However, Horowitz did resurrect the work in 1968, the 25th anniversary of Rachmaninoff's death. This performance, recorded that December in Carnegie Hall, is one of the most electrifying piano recordings ever made. Horowitz, at the very top of his form, brings a lithe, pantherlike quality to this performance. He knows how to balance Rachmaninoff's thick piano writing to recreate the composer's swirling anguish, and for all the lushness of Horowitz's conception, the pianist's tone remains limber, spare, prizing clarity over histrionics. Even when all Hell breaks loose, the pianist remains solidly in control. Thirty-five years after it was recorded, it remains the definitive version Rachmaninoff's Second Sonata, and one can sense the approving spirit of the composer in the tumultuous audience response.

The shorter pieces are equally convincing. The Prelude recalls the jingling bells of a Russian Troika, while the Moment Musicaux is given an inwardly brooding performance. The Etudes-Tableaux are less melodic, more economical in texture, with an almost barbaric rhythmic thrust. Horowitz concentrates on the epic, picturesque aspects of these works, and the controlled fury of the D Major has to be heard to be believed.

This reissue is a must for all lovers of great piano music. The sound is some of the best Horowitz received in the pre-digital era, and particularly fine in the live selections.

The sheer amazing virtuosity of Vladimer Horowitz is nowhere more apparent than in the Masterpiece collection. No pianist comes close (possibly the master Rachmaninov only) to Horowitz's adherence to tone, bringing out of all the melody in a piece, and his sheer clarity and brilliance of rhythm. Five stars hardly does him justice!

This disc is a great showcase of Vladimir Horowitz's powers as a performer of romantic music of this period. The Scriabin initially surprised me as not being a typical Horowitzian performance; here, the master's fiery temperament is held back somewhat, making for a more haunting than demonic interpretation. Needless to say, the result is still incredible, but in my view, an even better Scriabin can be found on Horowitz's RCA album.

As far as the rest goes, the Rachmaninoff readings are superhuman in every respect. Horowitz recorded the B-flat minor Sonata three times, and all three recordings are by far the best out there. This particular performance is packed with intensity form start to finish: blinding virtuosity in the outer movements and haunting melancholy in the middle. The most thrilling minute and a half, however, come from the etude-tableau in e-flat minor (he was called "The Tornado from the Steppes" for good reason).

This facet of Horowitz's career is not as celebrated as his early and late periods, but the disc is still quite worth the price.

The repertoire in this program, particularly the Scriabin, shows Horowitz at his elemental best. Horowitz's principal trait, as former student Byron Janis so aptly puts it, is his "divine inconsistency" - the gift of total nervous control at the keyboard wedded with a prismatic tonal palette. The mercurial soundscapes of Scriabin's etudes mesh perfectly with Horowitz's own flightiness. He whips the "Affannato" Op. 42., No.5 into a storm, the siren line of the arioso borne over volutes of seething bass notes. Amazing!

The second half of the recital is dominated by the blockbuster Rachmaninoff Sonata #2, recorded live in Carnegie hall.The sound is very good. Essential fare for inveterate romantics.

I heard one of classicial music fan says that Horowitz's playings of any Rachmaninoff works are incomparable. This is not a too bold statement. Listen to these Rach's Etude Tableaux, compare them to other recordings and you'll know what I mean. I don't think anyone can play them better than Horowitz. Not even Rachmaninoff himself.

Sonata 2 is also another reference point on this extremely difficult piece though I would say the best recording of the piece is Horowitz's 1980 recording ( regardless what piece's version we are referring to ). That recording is not as moving as this one but is much more powerful. Yet both of them which are totally different has confirmed how masterful Horowitz is on Rach's works.

We probably can't conclude the above statement to all the Scriabin works but not for these Etudes. Simple they are unrivaled.

Unfortunately the Great Rach's Etude Tableaux Op.39 No. 5 and Scriabin Etude Op. 8 No, 12 weren't included in this album but on another CD from the same SONY's Horowitz complete recording series. No doubt they are also the best recording of the pieces.

This is a must-have CD for anyone who loves the great writers of Russian romantic piano pieces. Horowitz's thunderous rendition of Rachmaninoff's incredible and difficult B-flat Sonata, done at the peak of his powers in the 1960s, is in my opinion virtually without peer in the realm of virtuoso pianism. It follows and contrasts nicely with the delicate and beautiful Medtner "Fairy Tale", a song which I had never even heard of prior to buying this CD; now it's one of my favorites as well. And there are several other nicely done selections , demonstrating the Horowitz bell-like "singing tone" that was so uniquely his own. All in all, this is a great CD that I listen to often!

I really wanted to rate this a 4.5 but the absolute brilliance of the Scriabin etudes forced me to round upward rather than down. The Etude Op 65, No 3, is a thing of incredible beauty in the master's hands. Something unusual occurred as Horowitz evolved as an artist: His interpretations of individual works did not become static. To be sure, the size of his repertorie shrunk dramatically but those that remained he performed with a panache, newness and vibrancy that continually startle yet satisfy.

This is nowhere more present than on this CD in which he gives his beloved Scriabin yet new meanings and interpretations with all the fire, passion, detail and finesse one can muster. The clarity of the notes is secondary to the overall architecture of the small pieces. As Horowitz aged the length of his performed pieces shrunk so that he achieved an almost crystaline clarity in the few short ones he did play.

Ever the consumate artist, one really wonders what the guiding force of his interpretations was. Whether it is the lighting quick runs or the thundering chords or his almost unique ability to highlight all the inner voices of a piece, there was something almost undefinable about his approach to the piano.

The Rachmaninoff Second was extremely idiosyncratic with none of the "waves of sound" one usually associates with the composer. It is almost as if he transformed the titanic work into a collection of brilliant miniatures, each startling in its own way but by necessity only vaguely related to the others. The best rendition of the fabulous second has to be Van Cliburn's performance in Moscow where the stunning aspect (apart from the fact that he played the original setting) was the overall architecture and organiaation, the totality of the three movements and their cyclic thematic resonance. He (Van Cliburn) also brought a stately grandeur to the sonata that is sorely lacking in this rendition.

Oddly enough, the same problem holds true for the selections of Etude-Tableaux. Again we are in miniature land with brilliance and ardor but the structure again seems to have gotten lost. It is a case of not being able to see the forest for all the stunning trees. The Medtner was a fine choice and rendered with a poetic touch and much attention to detail.