Tchaikovsky: Concerto No.1/Beethoven: Concerto No. 5 "Emperor"

The voltage is high, but the atmosphere is more relaxed in this live 1943 Tchaikovsky than these artists' overdriven studio version a few years earlier. More than a few pianists injured themselves attempting to play octaves as Vladimir Horowitz does here. The pianist's relationship with Beethoven was an on/off affair, but Horowitz' uncluttered, direct Emperor is one of the finest versions of this warhorse on disc. The lyrical, rapt slow movement brings out the frustrated opera singer in Horowitz, while Fritz Reiner supports his soloist with a sturdy, alert orchestral framework. A most attractive release. --Jed Distler Amazon.com

Horowitz at his best

These are two of the best recordings ever made of these works. The sound is excellent, even in the live recording of the Tchaikovsky, made in 1943. Highly recommended. May 14, 2008

Clasical/instrumental:tune out the sound:listen to the musivcianship

the much hackneyed Tchaikovsky First gets a different aura from the Horowits legendry fingers and the interference of 1940s sound and Toscanini's pedantic ryhthms cannot exinhuish the fire of the pianist: Horowits always shone in live concerts amd he was so emotional about his performances that he lamented the little slips of a finger from which even the greatest virtuosos suffer .He'd be nearly in tears when telling his friends the number of mistakes he had made; yes he counted them and would turn to his rehearsing keyboard to practicecorrected versions of the'guilty'passages...I always knew ththe was aslim man but imagined him being athletic, muscular. This until I saw him live in Brussels shortly after his triumphant return to Carnegie concert after a self inflicted 12 year hiatus( actually a 12 year drunk!)He was silm and small, moved quite decisively but without bounce. Yetwhen he sat art his beloved Steinway and unleshed his vaunted hands, he grew to 10 foot tall - I kid you not!(you had to be there.)Musicologists who were present at his Carnegie Hall retun concert still choke up when they tell how Horowits, when performing the J.S. Bach Toccata nd fugue transformed his Steinway into a giant organ onthe tenth bar of the first movement. The CD does notreflect this butI believe it as I heard Horoits playing Scarlatti harpsicord snatas and never before did any stenway sound like a harpsicord - honest!But back tothe reording at hand; While the tchaikowski is mgnificent the 'Emperor is off the mark, paricukarlyin thesecond movement(tha adagio) where Horowits is oddly alooofjust playing along ith Toacanini's metonomic accuracy. For great performances, I turn sometimes to the Rubinstein/Barenboim where the nonagenarian Artur defeats old age and pours outs his enomous love for Beethoven's finest pianoconcerto( arguably,). Mostof the time,I turn to my Serkin the earlier muscular performnce that displays Beethoven's rage at hisrapidly dvancing deafness. When I am more reposed and unconflicted, Iturn to Serkin's final recording with Seiji Ozawa conducting; thoroughly lirical rendiion echoing Beethoven's reluctant acceptance of his infirmity. It is to my ears, the ultimate 'Emperor'!.his Telarc CD is to me impeccable in every way andI have only one other reordingthat satisfies me as beautifully: theHorowits/Orandy/Phildelphia symphony.of Rachmaninof's third piano concertwhich sounds as if Rachmaninof were both atthe piano and at the podium. Some big name reviewers have founf this Rachmaninoff concert'flawed'.
I may not be a musicologist, not even a musician but if this qualies as'flawed', let allpiano concertos be 'flawed! December 18, 2007

The Best Tchaikovsky Out There

Vladimir Horowitz' 1943 live performance of the Tchaikovsky B-Flat Minor Piano Concerto is mesmerizing, to say the least. I must have over 20 recordings of this most famous work, and even Horowitz doesn't come close in the other two I have by him (the 1941 studio recording, also with Toscanini and a 1950 concert with George Szell)! Not Graffman, Rubinstein, Barry Douglas, Gilels and certainly not Liberace come close. Only Van Cliburn's 1958 Carnegie Hall performance with Kiril Kondrashin even approaches this one. In a word, it's electric. The reason is because both Horowitz and Toscanini had egos of major proportions, and given the spontaneous atmosphere of a war bond concert (back then, performers supported our gallant men in uniform; they didn't go to Nazi Germany to act as human shields), they both jazzed up the music as much as they could get away with. Okay, so this is hardly an impeccable interpretation, but it is powerful, and full of Romantic passion. This, I give 5 stars.

However, Horowitz' vigor for the great Russian warhorse doesn't as easily carry over to Beethoven. German music, at least before Wagner, ain't Russian music. A performer has to meet it on its own terms. There are intangibles and nuances between the notes that cannot be glossed over in the supersonic frenzy of a virtuoso spectacular, which is what Horowitz gives us.

A most insensitive "Emperor", it is almost alien to the classical genre. Thus, while it is certainly entertaining, Horowitz' recording is hardly inspiring. There is a limit to being able to get away with playing everything as though it were Liszt.

Listen, instead, to Artur Rubinstein's interpretations of the "Emperor" Concerto. The best of all is his weakest, technically, the 1975 recording he made at almost the age of 90 with Daniel Barenboim and the London Philharmonic. As Rubinstein got older, as arthritis wracked his hands and his eyes grew dimmer, his soul nonetheless shined through radiantly through his music. Moreso than any other performer or performance, on that record is the most honest performance of the great Beethoven concerto I've yet heard.

If you would prefer something cleaner and more technically accurate, I'd recommend Rubinstein's 1964 recording with Erich Leinsdorf and the BSO or Van Cliburn's 1961 recording with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony.

For this Horowitz recording, I give 3-1/2 stars, thus 4 on balance for the Tchaikovsky and the Beethoven. December 6, 2004

Unique and incomparable

This is a unique vision and outstanding version of the famous concerto. First of all it is a concert version made under exceptional circumstances - a war bond concert that raised vast sums of largesse towards the US second world war effort. In addition, the maestro was Toscanini who was at that time the unrivalled king of the US platform and had the talent, ego and personality enough to flatten the most prodigious talent.

Horowitz himself has a fantastic reputation as interpreter of the Tchai first but was heading towards his first - 12 year - self-enforced retirement and was already riddled with the self doubt that got him there. In addition, his relationship with Toscanini, his father-in-law, was one based primarily on fear. Quite understandably so by all accounts. Other recorded Horowitz concerto performances with the maestro bear testimony to the fact that he found it hard to overcome Toscanini's enormous personality.

This time however something genuinely clicked, possibly because Horowitz could dominate a concert performance in a way that he couldn't in the studio. The adrenaline and personality in this performance are truly astounding. In inimitable Horowitzian fashion there is some re-writing of the score most especially in the coda of the finale where the ascending interlocking octaves scream way past the point where normal piano keyboards have disappeared. Its quite an effect.

In this way and with the performance as a whole, it is impossible to compare it with any other performance before or since. It is a unique record that demands attention, occasional attention I would say, rather than representing a reading to live with every day. It is simply a recording you have to hear.

There is any number of fine performances of this concerto, but for a fascinating visual document try the new the new Gilels DVD on EMI. This a remarkable document of a simply divine performance even allowing for ropey sound and dodgy camera work from 1958. It also has a sensational account of Prokofiev's third piano sonata recorded by Gilels in London a year later. Such sweep and command of keyboard colour, musical structure and colour is simply awesome to behold. July 28, 2003

It may have rasied $10m for the war effort but ..

When I think Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1, I think Horowitz and Toscanini. Its simply unsurpassed. There are several recordings of Horowitz and Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and for me the finest is the May 6th 1941 recording - a couple of years earlier than the performance on this CD.

The quality of the CD is frankly terrible. If I can clean up the CD with little loss on my PC - albeit that I consider myself a professional - then surely RCA could have done better. Therefore the CD is disappointing on the one hand but still worthy of being added to your collection. July 3, 2003

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