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Brief essay on the new release.

Horowitz Essay

I attended the 1966 historic return by sneaking in through the adjacent building. I wouldn't be so interested in hearing all his Carnegie performances since most of those pieces were probably recorded many times and probably can be heard on YouTube, but I would like the 300 page book that goes along with the CD collection.

Anyone know if it's being issued separately?

(Plover: The actual "historic return" was in '65. I assume that's the one you mean?
In '66 he gave 1 or 2 further recitals. I went to one of those.)

I've snuck into so many recitals it's hard to keep track of the years. I also heard Richter play Pictures at an Exhibition for free...someone just gave me ticket at the line outside the box office.

I assume you mean this one:



....because that's the one that's called what you said.
(Program included Bach-Busoni Toccata, Adagio, & Fugue with the famous clinker in the opening figure, Schumann Fantasy, Chopin G minor Ballade, Scriabin 10th Sonata.)

That was in the spring of 1965.

Do you just stand the whole time?

In Carnegie Hall one can standard in the second tier boxes and nobody minds. Or just look for a seat that's free when the recital is just about to begin.

Risky move!

Darn right -- I don't show up until Chopin!

In the mid-1960s my high-school buddy wasn't really into classical music until I kept playing it and talking about it and I guess, pushing it down his throat, but he finally came around. He checked out the famous Carnegie Hall recording from our local library and when he returned it, the library claimed one of the two lps was missing so they made him pay for it and keep it. (He swears they were both in the album sleeves and that someone else must have stolen one of the records after he returned it.) Anyway, he was upset by the experience so he traded the half-missing album to me for one of my other records (I don't remember which one--at the time I had about 1000 recordings, all purchased with lawn-mowing income). It wasn't until about thirty years later that I got the cds and heard the whole concert. Of course, this was the studio-corrected version. I still have not heard the original, unedited versions. I am a big fan of Horowitz, in spite of his shortcomings and I am trying to decide if I should buy the new deluxe Carnegie recitals set even though I have dozens of his cds and records already. I know he liked to play a lot of the same pieces over and over. His performing pieces were more limited than a lot of artists and even though he often played pieces differently from performance to performance, duplication is inevitable. Still, I am thinking about it...Any opinions?

Pianoloverus: Sony will definitely not release either the book, or the DVD, separately. The label has been notoriously stingy in holding back on issuing rare material in the past, including the previously unpublished Rubinstein recordings that were issued in the 1999 and 2010 boxed sets.

The set has a lot of what I would call "partial" duplication. In other words, unedited recordings that were previously edited together for release on LP and CD. That's particularly true of the recitals from 1953 and 1966-1968. I expect die-hard fans like me have already purchased the set and listened several times over. Whether the casual fan or the curious will want to buy the box will depend on how much of the existing material you have and how deep your pockets are (it's currently $131 at Amazon).

Here's my full review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R23M77HJ4393YF

If anyone gets her hands on the essay, I'd love to know a bit of what it discusses/covers.

Scriabin sonata no.9! That famous recording of the 10th sonata is from 1966.

Which essay?

Thank you!!
And I ought to creep into a hole for that mistake, because this "Historic Recording" LP was exactly how I got into the 9th Sonata and wound up learning it.

The 1965 version was the first recording I heard of Scriabin No. 9. All other recordings I've heard have sounded muddy in comparison.

Btw, the unedited version of No. 10 is every bit as exciting as the edited version, although rather different: more rhapsodic, particularly in the central climactic section where Horowitz introduces an accelerando.

This is a very fine report. Thanks.