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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The greatest 20th Cent. pianist at his best!,
By Gordon Stevens (Rochester, New York) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Vladimir Horowitz: Complete Masterwork Recordings, 1962-1973 (Audio CD)
If you were to take a set of piano music from only one performer to a desert island, this would be the set. Vladimir Horowitz was a pianist of incredible, almost unique, technical prowess capable of creating wonderful piano textures and tone colorings, and possessing his own dark, distinctive sound on a wonderful Steinway he had transported to each of his concerts or studio recording sessions. Of almost limitless ability, he suffered criticism from music critics because he severely limited his performing repertoire and stayed away from the concert stage for several prolonged periods because of his terrible insecurity and stagefright. He was especially criticized in his early years for bravura performances which were brilliant, but loud and not always tasteful. He was known for giving his enthralled audiences what they wanted, but it should be remembered that he championed Scarlatti and almost single-handedly brought him back into the performing world from near-oblivion, and it was Horowitz who premiered several important works by twentieth century composers such as Barber and Khatchaturian. He kept the works of the mysterious and exotic Alexander Scriabin from disappearing from piano benches in the conservatories, and he created some of the most imaginative and thrilling encore transcriptions ever heard in the concert hall. In later years, his repertoire expanded and he played some wonderful Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, much of which is featured in this set. The highlight of this disc collection from the early 60's through about 1973 is the historic return concert at Carnegie Hall in 1965. After a self-imposed exile from public performing for 12 years, he made this famous recital which is one of the most memorable in the history of recorded piano performance. Although he made several nerve-induced mistakes in the opening Bach piece, he settled down quickly and delivered a thrilling performance, highlighted, for me, at least, by the Chopin Ballade in G minor, which took away my breath and featured one of the most dazzling climaxes I have ever heard on a piano. His incredible performance possessed a youthful vitality which belied his 62 years. Throughout the other discs in this set one hears Horowitz at his best: still technically awesome yet more musically mature and capable of producing little miracles from pieces well-known, and less-known. No longer pandering to the expectations of the audience, he gave as his encore at the Carnegie Hall return concert, a precious, child-like Traumerei from Kinderszenen. The Schumann featured on these discs includes some of the most beautiful offerings available anywhere of this composer, including a wonderful Fantasy in C and perhaps the best performance ever on record of Kreisleriana. The Schubert impromptus are little miracles, and the Debussy that's thrown in makes us fantasize about the other French music he could have given us! His wonderful Chopin reminds us there are other views besides Rubinstein's to this most-important-of-all piano literature, and his Rachmaninoff is glorious. Performing into his eighties, he was a wonder of music and the 13 discs offered here give a personal record of a dazzling career from his very best years. It might be pointed out that several pieces are offered more than once in the set as they were recorded in several concerts and studio sessions and it is interesting to hear the differences in his performances. One might wish that his piano oeuvre had included more composers and a wider range of pieces, but this collection certainly highlights the work he was best known for, including as it does the various Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Schumann, Scarlatti, Scriabin, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Clementi, and Beethoven gems he was noted for throughout his long career. Anyone loving the piano, or just beautiful music must hear these discs!
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
merely spectacular!,
By
This review is from: Vladimir Horowitz: Complete Masterwork Recordings, 1962-1973 (Audio CD)
I've only had this set about a week and have already indulged three complete listenings; it's a gold mine! - the power of preaching is persuasive in the Temple of Horowitz! I'm taken aback by the unity and continuity of sonics, an excellent and remarkable display of high engineering art. Everything important is here (almost! I wish some of the Scriabin Preludes had been included). There are sketches of incomparable pianism and supreme intelligence in these discs: Liszt's 'Vallee d'Obermann', and the Consolations; Debussy's 'L'isle joyeux' - so 'russian playing french'! - Scriabin's 'Vers le flamme' and the Black Mass sonata - one simply can't climb out of the volcano, it's terrifying and beautiful! - and the Scarlatti and Chopin. Only Gilels approaches Horowitz's indigenous understanding of Chopin. In the course of thirteen discs the glory can start to crash in around you, but at the last moment of endurance along comes 'Serenade of the Doll', or one of the Consolations. The Bach-Busoni is cerebral and fine. Horowitz gets rapped for the wrong romanticism - it's the romanticism of artistic intelligence that his art claims! I love that famous C clunker at the beginning of the Bach-Busoni in the Return to Carnegie Hall recital; more than that, I appreciate how Horowitz played his public pride in it, no retouches, etc. Shrewd, and very real, I think. He was a pianist of enormous humility on the inside, so completely knowing of his gifts - one of the reason his playing was something special. He possessed the often disregarded ability to stand completely outside his playing and admire it as one might a beautiful woman, with complete humility. It affords us the privilege of reaping joy after joy of a remarkable art the likes of which will surely stand true for a long time. 200 bucks is a lot of money, I probably would have thought it too much for the convenience of a collection; I'm glad someone else didn't feel that way, and gave me the set! - now I find it curiously too clever a package to be considered merely a consolidation of recordings into a 'set' - there is something indefinably congruent about these recordings. They fit together with harmonious intent, and shine and shadow the land with a marvelous music. Highest recommendation without reservation.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must for piano and Horowitz fans,
By
This review is from: Vladimir Horowitz: Complete Masterwork Recordings, 1962-1973 (Audio CD)
If you are going to buy only one boxed set of classical solo piano music, this is the one to get. The recordings, made between 1962-1973, show Vladimir Horowitz at the absolute top of his form. The set includes a total of 13CDs divided into nine volumes.
The first two volumes chronicle Horowitz's return to the studios after signing an exclusive recording contract with Columbia Masterworks. Highlights include the legendary Scarlatti album (which has been expanded with six more Sonatas from those sessions), Horowitz's finest recorded performance of Chopin's Sonata, Op. 35, and an astonishing performance of Horowitz's own arrangement of Liszt's relatively unknown Hungarian Rhapsody No. 19. Volumes 3 & 4 document Horowitz's Carnegie Hall recitals from 1965-1968, a time when he was making no studio recordings. His "Historic Return to Carnegie Hall" album has never been out of the catalogue since 1965, and it is most welcome to hear it in this improved remastering - an unedited version of this recital has been issued separately. The only regret here is that the 1968 Television Recital has not been made available on video. Sony should put this on DVD immediately. The remaining volumes, 5 - 9, are assembled from Horowitz's 1969 - 1973 studio recordings and various recitals from 1966 - 1968. The highlights here are Horowitz's Scriabin recordings, Rachmaninoff's Second Sonata, and Schumann's Kreisleriana - perhaps Horowitz's finest solo recording ever. The sequencing of works within the individual volumes is in keeping with Horowitz's concepts (the pianist was very particular about how his recordings were programmed). Each volume contains a blurb by Wanda Toscanini Horowitz, a perceptive essay by Byron Janis, and illustrations - some of which I'd never seen before. The liner notes from the original recordings are also included, but are unfortunately truncated. The sound, remastered from the original session tapes, is far improved from the late 1980s CBS CD issues which were painfully tinny sounding. One caveat: Some of these issues had to be reconstructed "by ear", as documentation of which "take" was used has mostly been lost. As has been documented elsewhere, Kreisleriana is here issued using several alternate takes - which have since been duplicated in most CD issues. There are also small portions of other works that use alternate takes, but these are less consequential. Alternate takes or not (and I've spoken to people who prefer the alternates) this set is indispensable.
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