Horowitz: The Last Recording

Sublime

In his book "Evenings With Horowitz", the eminent piano professor David Dubal quotes someone by the name of James Hilton (an author, I think) who wrote: "If by some dispensation a man born deaf were to be given hearing for a single hour he might well spend the whole time with Horowitz. Indeed, when I listened to Horowitz for the first time, it was almost like that - as if I had never heard the piano before - as if the instrument itself had never known what it could do until Horowitz came along."

Listen to this CD and you will no doubt agree. As Dubal says elsewhere, Horowitz somehow unlocked the secrets of sonority on the piano. Listen to Earl Wild's or Alfred Brendel's or Jean-Yves Thibaudet's recordings of the Liszt/Wagner Liebestod. Then listen to Horowitz's - it's a revelation, it's shocking, it's hard to comprehend. After Horowitz, the others are impossible to listen to again, they sound wrong, they sound ill thought-out. So how does he do it? I think the answer is very complex. It's partly the unique singing sound he produces, in itself miraculous. It's also the particular accents, nuances, crescendos, diminuendos and other "effects" he employs. It's also partly the tempo - not fast but somehow just right and it makes you realise that the other recordings are too slow. And I suppose it's also the decades of experience and learning that he brings to bear and which help him stamp the piece with his own individual authority. The other pianists' recordings of this piece are commonplace and frankly unmoving. Horowitz's recording will bring tears to your eyes with its poignancy, tenderness and sheer beauty.

What of the other pieces? The Hadyn sparkles. The Chopin studies are marvellous - how can an 80-something year old play them better than all the youngsters out there!! The lyrical section of the Fantasie-Impromptu doesn't drag in Horowitz's hands but sings all the same.

I agree fully with the view of Harold Schonberg who wrote the definitive Horowitz biography - he felt that Horowitz in his last five years or so reached new heights of sonority on the piano. He was too old to execute his death-defying technical stunts so instead he pushed the boundaries in other ways. I forget who it was but it was someone like Claudio Arrau or Shura Cherkassky or some other legendary pianist who said that upon hearing Horowitz live for the first time they were "in shock, absolutely in shock". I think this recording is an excellent example of that. The quality of the recording is good enough to give you some idea of the unique, inexplicable Horowitz sound. August 8, 2007

Horowitz: The Last Recording

This album was the last ever made by this awesome legend of piano-playing. Recorded at his own home in six sessions over twelve days, it is stunning to realise that this performance comes from a man of 86 years of age. I thought I had heard just about everything he had ever recorded. This album includes music he had never before played publicly at least not in the USA - or recorded.
Haydns Eflat Sonata No 49 sparkles from start to finish, full of typical Horowitzian colour and drama, yet classical in flavour and beautifully balanced.
A Mazurka, two Nocturnes and two Etudes by Chopin, and Liszts arrangement of Wagners Liebestod follow, each pianistically fabulous in terms of colour, multiple singing melodic lines, textural richness and clarity.
The popular and much-hackneyed Fantasie Impromptu flows unexpectedly quieter than one usually hears it played, which is rather refreshing. I took a while to get used to the absence of sentimentality in the middle section.
The Weinen Klagen Praeludium is a gem. This late Liszt composition is not particularly well-known. In his later years Liszt explored and developed visionary harmonic ideas, which are exemplified in the richly chromatic Praeludium. Horowitz brings its darkly exquisite harmonies to life with turbulent intensity. Although it comes second to last, I understand this was the last piece of music recorded for this disc, therefore the last ever recorded by the maestro. This recording was completed on 1st November 1989. The maestro died on November 5th 1989.
A few quirky features here and there, but it would not be vintage Horowitz without those. Essential listening for piano music lovers and especially Horowitz fans. March 27, 2006

absolutely outstanding

There are a few "bests" here in my opinion so lets list them one by one. This is the best Haydn by far. Horowitz really brings the piece to the summit of artistry but also interpretation. It so hard to comprehend how a pianist can take the aristrocratic and relatively reserved Haydn sonatas and turn them into a potpourri of colors. Everything is here - the typical surreptitious Haydnian staccato - a slow movement with real cantabile. Its a shame that Horowitz didn't record more Mozart and Haydn.
Horowitz playing of both of the etudes here are just sensational. How creative can you get?!!! Bringing out inner voices and colliding/merging them with others. Also the first nocturne is the best I have ever heard.
I must be frank and say that the fantasie-impromptu didn't make me too happy. Its played a little bit sloppy and I don't understand what he is trying to convey with the middle section which plays kind of fast and loud. I think this might have to do witht the fact that the piece is overplayed but who knows.

This is a pianist that has no limits. He can play 1000 different types of staccato, legato, etc... but he also has emotion. Horowitz is up there in heaven looking down and shaking his head at all the immitators. February 23, 2006

The Last and One of the Very Best

It is truly amazing to think that Horowitz was 86 years old when he made this recording. The virtuoso passages of Chopin that require fingertip pyrotechnics are played with flawless precision and a sense of nuance and shading that is exquisite. At his very best, Horowitz took music to a level where he made the piano into his palette and painted a marvelously subtle musical picture. On the slower passages, every note and even the intervals between the notes exhude a calm self-assured artistry. This is not just wonderful music; it is sheer poetry. As Murray Perahia writes in his touching essay in the CD insert, Horowitz felt that what made a composer truly classical was "an intensity and purity of expression where every note matters, every note has meaning." One certainly hears and feels that intensity and purity on this CD.

There is also a noticeable improvement in sound quality on this CD, that was recorded digitally, in comparison to earlier Horowitz recordings I have heard from the analog era. How fortunate we should all feel that he lived into the digital era and was still playing at such a sublime level into his final years, so that he could leave us this musical legacy. My personal favorite on this CD is track 6, the "Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66 of Chopin, which is played with dazzling scintillating brilliance and, at the same time, superb control, subtlety, and deep emotion. However, a close second for me is the tenth track, Liszt's "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen" a Prelude based on a theme from Bach's Cantata No. 12. Horowitz's performance of this composition is achingly beautiful. The CD booklet has an excellent essay by Murray Perahia in English, with German, French and Italian translations. A wonderful CD and fitting memorial to one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. November 22, 2005

Some Enchanted Evening ...

I make the case that Chopin is the father of modern music in my review of Horowitz's "The Last Romantic" ..... and this CD provides more evidence ..... think of the extraordinarily haunting melody and chords of "Some Enchanted Evening" ..... this song was lifted directly from Chopin's Etude 1 No. 25 and you can hear it on this disc.... beautifully played by Chopin's greatest interpreter (in my opinion). The disc also includes "Fanatasie Impromptu" ... one of the tunes that opened the ears of this pop and jazz fan to 'classical' or 'romantic' music. January 27, 2004

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