Pictures at an Exhibition; Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
Pictures at an Exhibition; Samuel Goldenberg & Schmuyle
Pictures at an Exhibition; Limoges marché
Pictures at an Exhibition; Catacombae (Sepulcrum romanum)
Pictures at an Exhibition; Con mortius in lingua mortua
Pictures at an Exhibition; Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yaga)
Pictures at an Exhibition; The Great Gate at Kiev
Sonata for Piano in B minor, S. 178; I. Lento assai - Allegro energico
Sonata for Piano in B minor, S. 178; II. Andante sostenuto
Sonata for Piano in B minor, S. 178; III. Allegro energico (fugato)
In 1988, Vladimir Horowitz donated a treasure trove of original recordings to Yale University his Private Collection. Recorded live at Carnegie Hall between 1945 and 1950 and unreleased until now, these stunning performan... more »ces capture Horowitz at the peak of his technical and musical glory.« less
In 1988, Vladimir Horowitz donated a treasure trove of original recordings to Yale University his Private Collection. Recorded live at Carnegie Hall between 1945 and 1950 and unreleased until now, these stunning performances capture Horowitz at the peak of his technical and musical glory.
Hank Drake | Cleveland, OH United States | 06/30/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Sony has dipped into the archives at Yale University for this first ever release of performances by Vladimir Horowitz at the height of his powers.
Horowitz was well known for his transcriptions of such works as Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies and Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. But he faced criticism when he altered significant portions of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition - which was and remains far better known in Ravel's transcription for orchestra. Truth be told, Mussorgsky's original version is one of the most poorly written pieces - in terms of writing for the instrument, not musical ideas - in the piano repertoire. Before Horowitz, few pianists even bothered playing it at all. Those that did often made alterations, such as Moiseiwitsch in 1945. But it took someone with the guts and imagination of Horowitz to undertake a wholesale rewriting of the piece - which angered a lot of purists. In fact, Horowitz's changes are far more subtle than the firecracker like passageworks he afforded in his other arrangements.
Previous to this release, there were two issued recordings of Horowitz playing his arrangement of Pictures. The studio recording, from 1947, and a live Carnegie Hall performance, from 1951. Most reviewers have tended to prefer the 1951 recording, which has some incendiary passagework in The Hut on Fowl's Legs. I've been partial to the 1947 performance, which comes across as more of a single piece, rather than sectionalized. (Unfortunately, the 1947 recording has suffered from particularly poor remastering in BMG's Gold Seal Horowitz reissue.) The performance released here, from April 2, 1948, is more along the lines of the 1947 recording - although Horowitz, no doubt under the "battle-conditions" of live performance, does push tempo and articulation to extremes at times. Each Picture leads as part of the whole to the inevitable climax of the Great Gate of Kiev (appropriately, Kiev is the town where Horowitz grew up).
The 1949 recording of Liszt's Sonata in B Minor is another matter entirely - this performance is like nothing you've ever heard. Neither the cheetah like sprint of Horowitz's famed 1932 recording nor the labored grandiloquence of his 1977 remake can compare with this overwhelmingly incendiary performance. There will no doubt be controversy here, as Horowitz cuts 22 bars from the central Recitativo section of the work - but this performance must be heard.
The sound has been excellently restored by Jon Samuels. A few quibbles: At under 60 minutes, this disc is not well filled - and with the huge cache of unreleased material in Sony/BMG's vaults, there is no excuse. There was room for Horowitz's versions of Liszt's St Francis Walking on the Water and Balakirev's Islamey, also recorded at these concerts. And this CD, like many of Sony's new releases, is packaged in cheap paperboard - so handle with care.
"
Great performances: One reservation
Dr. Steven R. Bennett | Baltimore, USA | 08/02/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I agree with the very informative comments and opinions in the other review of this release. My copy, also poorly packaged, was without any background information about Horowitz or these or other potential performances in this series. There were no performance dates for either work - only a one-liner about private tapes recorded between 1945-51. Shame on BMG Sony marketing staffs for this oversight. The sound, however, was quite acceptible - even vicerally exciting - given their age."
Vladimir Horowitz at Carnegie Hall-The Private Collection: M
Jost Robins | Central Florida | 08/29/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This was a gift to my son who is in his Sr. year at the University in Piano Performance. Horowitz is a master, as well as a legend, and we never tire of watching his DVDs or listening to his CD's. This CD was the frosting on the cake. Beautiful!
The Art of Piano - Great Pianists of 20th CenturyVladimir Horowitz At Carnegie Hall-The Private Collection: Mussorgsky & LisztHorowitz in Moscow"
Horowitz, Carnegie Hall, 4.5 stars
jsa | San Diego, CA United States | 01/14/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Aside from Bizet's "Carmen" & Sousa's "Stars & Stripes Forever," which were piano arrangements of orchestral scores, Vladimir Horowitz made changes to a number of piano scores that he felt were improvements to the originals. For example, Horowitz rewrote passages, typically adding supplemental chords to create drama or filling in notes here or there to highlight points, to Balakirev's "Islamey," Liszt's "St Francis of Paola Walking on the Water," "Vallee d'Obermann" & several of the Liszt rhapsodies among other things. While this practice was not uncommon in nineteenth century pianism, by the mid-twentieth century the composer's notes were considered more or less sacred & artists pretty much stuck to playing what was on the printed page. Nevertheless, even Rachmaninoff, as famous a pianist as he was a composer, continued tinkering with scores; & while he didn't re-write whole passages, he did add notes to Chopin where he felt something extra was needed. Needless to say, adding to or subtracting from a Chopin score would be totally unacceptable today - but making adjustments to Liszt, such as Horowitz continued to do throughout his career (his last modification was Mephisto Waltz in 1979) is more acceptable because there's a tradition of Liszt arrangements that provide some foundation for the practice.
The proof, I suppose, is ultimately in the results, which is to say that the listener can decide for himself whether or not he likes the final product. I loved Horowitz's "Mephisto Waltz" & thought "Vallee d'Obermann" from his 1966 Carnegie Hall recital was exciting even though his additions were unnecessary. In the case of the emendations Horowitz made to Balakirev's "Islamey" & Liszt's "St Francis of Paola Walking on the Water," which appear on a separate Horowitz "Private Collection" disc, I believe that the changes not only add nothing but actually detract from the composers' works. Just listen to Kempff's thrilling traversal of the second Liszt Legend & Arrau's monumental "Islamey" & you'll see that they stand perfectly well by themselves.
Horowitz's most famous re-arrangement, and in my view the most successful, was "Pictures at an Exhibition" where supplemental chords & fillers really are an improvement. Olin Downes, who wrote the program notes for the 1947 Carnegie Hall recital when Horowitz introduced his version of "Pictures," stated that "Mr. Horowitz has done a little 'piano orchestration' in ways confined to octave doublings, redistribution of passage work between the hands, transpositions of brief passages an octave below or above the original pitch etc. The effort has been solely to realize the intention of the composer and to refrain from gratuitous ornamention or officious 'correction' of any detail of the text as it stands."
Apparently, not everyone agreed with Horowitz's intentions. In the liner notes accompanying this disc, David Dubal quotes Horowitz as telling him, "they said I put graffiti on Mussorgsky, but I don't give a damn. I worked hard on that transcription, I am proud of it. You see, I felt the Pictures had to be brought forward. They were too introverted. When I change anything it is only to make a better piano sound." In my view, Richter's justly famous recording from his 1956 Sofia recital is still no match for Horowitz & the primary reason is that Horowitz is playing from a more interesting score. The performance on this disc is somewhat of a cross between the more stately studio version Horowitz recorded for RCA in 1947 & the chromium-plated reading from a 1951 Carnegie Hall recital (my favorite), both now available in the Horowitz Complete Original Jacket Collection.
The Liszt sonata which is a disc-mate to Mussorgsky, is another matter. Here Horowitz decided to cut from the score: from bar 291 to the middle of bar 313. Dubal calls the cut "unexplainable"; however, Horowitz must have thought it an improvement. It certainly isn't a memory lapse; if so, Horowitz would never have preserved this recording, nor would the producers have issued it. I hesitate to call this cut a travesty, yet I don't know how else to describe it other than to say that it is an example of bad judgment. In any event, Horowitz's reading is organized, fluid & epic in a way that is totally unlike his 1978 stereo remake for RCA. I only wish he had relied a little more on the crystal clear articulation that is thrilling to hear all by itself & less on bursts of excessive speed & crashing chords. But that too was Horowitz...."