Horowitz in Boston (Living Stage

Vladimir Horowitz in Boston

Living Stage: LS 4035177 (2 CDs)

CD 1

Joseph Haydn
1-2. Sonata in C major, Hob. XVI:48

Frederic Chopin
3. Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52
4. Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op.30 No.4
    Mazurka in B minor, Op.33 No.4
5. Scherzo No.1 in B minor, Op.20

Alexander Scriabin
6. Etude in C-sharp minor, Op.2 No.1
    Etude, Op.65 No.2
    Etude, Op.65 No.3
    Etude in F-sharp major, Op.42 No.4
    Etude in F-sharp major, Op.42 No.3
    Etude in C-sharp minor, Op.42 No.5
    Etude in B-flat minor, Op.8 No.11
    Etude in D-flat major, Op.8 No.10

CD 2

Franz Liszt
1. Hungarian Rhapsody No.13 (edited by Horowitz)

Claude Debussy
2. Serenade for the Doll

Robert Schumann
3. Träumerei, Op.15 No.7 (from Kinderszenen)

Sergei Rachmaninoff
4. Etude-Tableau in D major, Op.39 No.9

"Bonus material":

Claude Debussy
5. Serenade for the Doll

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
6. Brief excerpt from Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor, Op.23 [1 min 43 sec only]
       - Fritz Reiner/Philadelphia Orchestra

7. Guest Star Radio Broadcast (1951)
Featuring Horowitz selling defencebonds + three of his then soon-to-be-released RCA recordings:
Moszkowski: Etude in F major, Op.72 No.6
Brahms: Waltz in A-flat major, Op.39 No.15
Sousa/Horowitz: The Stars & Stripes Forever

8. Interview with Horowitz by Albert M. Petrak
Excerpts from the Press Conference in Cleveland from May 10 1974 spliced together as an interview

Great Piano Playing, Poor Recorded Sound

Horowitz in Boston is a pirate recording of the pianist's October 26, 1969 recital at Boston's famed Symphony Hall (one of Horowitz's favorite locations) which turned out to be his last public appearance until May, 1974.

Be warned, the recorded sound here is very poor. It sounds like the bootlegger who recorded this recital was seated near the back of the hall--the sonority is very distant and there is a great deal of distortion and pre/post echo. However, for those willing to listen past the bad sound, there are some treasures here. Two items--Scriabin's Etude in Major Sevenths, Op. 65, No. 2, and Horowitz's arrangement of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13--are entirely new to the Horowitz discography.

Then there is the playing. Horowitz is in rare form here. The Haydn sparkles. The Chopin Ballade in F Minor is given a performance which balances architechtonic grandeur with expressiveness, and the treacherous coda is handled as if it were child's play. The group of Scriabin Etudes shifts effortlessly between luxuriant decadence and demonic fury. Horowitz's arrangement of the Liszt Rhapsody is a bit different than his other transcriptions: the re-writing is relatively minor, mostly confined to touching-up (and yes, improving) the original coda.

Michael Steinberg, music critic of the Boston Globe wrote a surprisingly negative review of this recital ("at the deepest level, boring..fussy... catastrophic"). All I can say, hearing the recorded evidence, is that Steinberg's ears must have been on backwards that day. (It has been implied by some that Horowitz suffered a severe depression as a result of Steinberg's review. However, as the pianist went into the recording studio five weeks after this concert, and made one of his greatest recordings--Schumann's Kreisleriana--that idea can be safely put to rest.)

There are a few bonus items here: a Debussy Serenade from 1933, a radio broadcast of Horowitz promoting United States Defense Bonds from 1951, and an interview before his 1974 recital in Cleveland. Again, there are issues with the recorded sound, except in the Defense Bond broadcast which is better quality.

© Hank Drake

This page is part of The Vladimir Horowitz Website
http://w1.854.telia.com/~u85420275/index.htm