Blistering Horowitz

Pianist Vladimir Horowitz left such a vast legacy of recordings that it would seem impossible for any new release of Horowitz material to add anything new to the picture.  Wrong!  Between 1945 and 1950 Mr Horowitz had many of his Carnegie Hall recitals recorded by a private company.  The discs were donated to Yale University not long before he died and there they have languished - until now.  Sony have taken it in hand to release three discs of this treasure trove of  Horowitz goodies.  One disc features Haydn and Beethoven sonatas (the ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Waldstein’) all of which are dazzling performances.  On a disc devoted to Schumann, Balakirev, Chopin and Liszt Horowitz is at his most incandescent and beguiling offering a sizzling account of ‘Islamey’ and the most gorgeous Schumann Fantasy in C.

Arguably the highlight of this batch of issues is a disc containing a live 1940’s version of the Liszt B minor Sonata and Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ in Horowitz’s own staggering arrangement.  For decades Horowitz’s old 1932 HMV set of the Liszt was regarded as the benchmark performance but even it is eclipsed by this new live issue .  In fact, I’ve never heard anything like it.  One fears for both the safety of the piano and the pianist! If you love Horowitz or simply even love the piano get this whatever else you do.  The recording isn’t exactly state of the art - there’s the odd bang and crackle - but the sound comes through and so does the performance.