"Horowitz Rediscovered"
Schumann:
Blumenstück in
D-flat, Op. 19
Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op.
14
Rachmaninoff:
Prelude in G, Op. 32, No.
5
Etude-tableau in E-flat minor, Op. 39,
No. 5
Liszt:
Valse oubliée No. 1 in
F-sharp
Au bord d'une
source
Chopin:
Waltz in A minor, Op. 34,
No. 2
Scherzo No. 1 in B minor, Op.
20
Debussy: "Serenade of the Doll" from Children's Corner
Schumann:
Traumerei
Moszkowski: Etincelles
Rachmaninoff: Etude-tableau in D, Op. 39, No. 9
Vladimir Horowitz (piano)
RCA Red Seal (two discs)
"Horowitz Rediscovered" presents the 20th century's most famous pianist in
his Indian summer — a recital at Carnegie Hall on 16 November 1975,
recorded by RCA and never before released. Since none of the works included is
new to the Horowitz discography, this two-disc set poses some questions.
Did we really need yet another Horowitz recording of Schumann's Traumerei? There were already 11. Chopin's B minor Scherzo and A minor Waltz, Liszt's Valse oubliée No. 1, Debussy's "Serenade for the Doll"? There were already five of each. Many Horowitz devotees would argue that any performance by this pianist deserves to be heard. But "Horowitz Rediscovered" tells us little or nothing we didn't already know.
Certainly, the Schumann tracks on the first disc should have been allowed to remain undisturbed in the vaults. Horowitz's performance of the Blumenstück, for instance, is inferior to the one in his recorded Carnegie Hall recital from the fall of 1966. That performance — sensitive to shadings, lyrical in feeling and precise in its dynamics — transforms a somewhat repetitious minor work into an enchantment; this newer version is much longer than the earlier one and seems interminable: Horowitz's tortured phrasing, his obsession with discovering inner voices in the music's texture and his failure to establish a discernible rhythmic pulse cause a breakdown in the musical line and convey nothing but his own confusion.
His performance of the Schumann Sonata in F minor is somewhat better, if only because it manages not to collapse into anarchy. Nevertheless, Horowitz sounds uncomfortable with the music. (He programmed it for the first time in his career during the 1975–76 season and then dropped it from his repertory.) His performance betrays a lack of rhythmic steadiness and sounds labored, particularly in the tough-to-negotiate twists and turns of the first, second and final movements. Even in the relaxed third movement Andantino, Horowitz falls short of expectations. In his two earlier recordings (1951 and 1969), this movement flowed with nocturnal simplicity; this 1975 performance sounds distorted by libertine applications of rubato, inappropriately wide dynamics and mannered phrasing.
The second disc consists entirely of works that had been part of his repertory for more than 50 years, and here Horowitz is more successful. He plays Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G major and Etude-tableau in E-flat minor with sentiment, color and elegance. Chopin's A minor Waltz gets dignity and unfussy lyricism; the B minor Scherzo is nicely shaped and filled with much of the old Horowitz electricity — as well as, in the closing moment, the pianist's signature cannonade of interlocking octaves, which he always substituted for the chromatic scales specified by the composer. Liszt's Valse oubliée No. 1 receives a warm, poetic performance that features flexible and sonorous trills. Horowitz captures the innocence of Debussy's "Serenade for the Doll" and performs Moszkowski's Etincelles with an insouciant bravura that glitters almost as brilliantly as, and is perhaps even more charming than, his earlier recordings of the piece. But is that sufficient to make this release worthwhile when there are so many other recordings of the same artist doing the same works?
Although he has been dead since 1989, Horowitz still provides a fix more
potent than that of any other pianist; his fans, of course, won't be able to
resist "Horowitz Rediscovered." But after they listen to it a few times, they
will probably let it collect dust. If you want to get high on Horowitz, you'll
do better with his earlier recordings.
