Piano Concertos

Horowitz's notably small concerto repertoire is perhaps one of the great losses of musical history. Having only recorded five concertos during his massive career, he is known to have played as many as seven or eight. As can be expected Horowitz still managed to leave his mark on these works to say the least. Horowitz did play both Liszt Concertos after coming to the west. Horowitz is said to have performed both Chopin Concertos in Russia. Though it is rumored he played the Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto in Russia, there is no known documentation of this.

Tchaikovsky

In his earlier years back in Russia, Horowitz performed both Liszt concertos, the Chopin Second Concerto, and perhaps the second Rachmaninoff. But his first success with a concerto was with the first concerto of Tchaikovsky. It was this piece that would allow Horowitz to make a name for himself in Germany when he arrived there in 1925. In fact Horowitz's big break came in Hamburg in 1925 when, upon returing to his hotel from a day at the zoo, he was approached and asked to replace a female soloist who had taken ill. "Can you play in two hours?" Horowitz agreed. Without a rehearsal Horowitz arrived at the concert hall and Eugen Pabst, the conductor, approached him, talked a little about tempos, and told Horowitz to follow HIM. When Horowitz walked out onto the stage, no one even applauded, no one had ever heard of him. Afer the short orchestral introduction, Horowitz played those first wonderful chords and Pabst turned around and looked as though he didn't belive what he was hearing, he stopped conducting! He even came next to the keyboard to listen. After the cadenza he was back on the podium and "he began to follow me" as Horowitz said. Needless to say the concert hall was a frenzy, "bedlam absolutly bedlam" as Horowitz described it. It was this concert and the resulting reviews the made Horowitz famous in Berlin. From there it was to Paris, England, and eventually to America. In 1928, Horowitz made his American debut with Beecham. In this famous concert, Beecham too was making his American debut. As not to be shown up by the pianist, Beecham conducted without the score at a very slow tempo. Horowitz knew it was also his own debut and dredded the thought of having to return to Russia. When the third movement began, again, Beecham used a very slow tempo. When the solo part came in Horowitz took off like storm. It has been dubbed "the octaves race." Rachmaninoff was in the audience and two days later wrote Horowitz and was disturbed by Horowitz's expressing such an outburst of emotion during a performance. Surely Rachmaninoff understood Horowitz's perdicament. Later Horowitz explained his reasons to Rachmaninoff and they joked about it. From then until 1953 this concerto was very crutial to the Horowitz repertoire. He played it everywhere until 1953.

Rachmaninoff

The most significant, but perhaps not the most popular concerto that Horowitz owned is the third of Rachmaninoff. It was Horowitz's mastery and complete comprehension of this work that, upon hearing him play, Rachmaninoff retired this piece from his own repertoire. This was in 1928 upon Horowitz's arrival in America. Later, in 1941, Rachmaninoff attended a Horowitz performance of this concerto at the Hollywood Bowl. Sitting in the back row so as not to be seen by anybody as he was almost pathologically shy Rachmaninoff listened to Horowitz's complete domination of this, a piece that Rachmaninoff wrote to suit his own style. At the end of the performance, Rachmaninoff was so moved that he marched up to the stage and held Horowitz's hand and proclaimed that This is the way I have always dreamed my Concerto should be played, but I never expected to hear it that way on earth. Horowitz later recalled this to be the greatest moment of his professional life. There are six known recordings of Horowitz playing the Third Concerto. They are from 1930, 1941, 1950, 1951, and twice in 1978, one audio and one video recording. I have all six and wish that our technology could be taken back to 1941 to obtain a better recording of this version in it's entirety. This recording is simply breathtaking. This is Horowitz at his best. In the early recordings there are many cuts made so the whole piece would fit reasonably on 78's. The 1930 recording ended up taking nine sides of five disks! As for the 1978 video recording with Zubin Metah and the New York Philharmonic. It is pure magic! Finding it was somewhat of a magic trick in itself. This performance is said to be the best of Horowitz's 1978 performances. There are some really interesting things that Horowitz does in his playing on this particular recording that really appeal to me. I really like the part of the third movement after the right hand glissando in the march like section were he brings out the left hand rhythm over the right hand chords as shown in fig. 1 below. There is a small hint of this in the 1941 recording, but nothing as well pronounced as in the recordings of 1978. In fact many people who were at the January performance say he didn't do it during the concert, but there it is on the album. That must have been one of the sections that he fixed (up) after the concert! I also like in the same movement about ten bars later where he combines the two last eighth notes in each section into quarter notes to really bring out the harmony. This is especially noticeable in the 1950 and the 1978 audio recording (fig. 2). Horowitz does some interesting things in the first movement cadenza as well. He moves some of the chords around as did Emil Geils and Byron Janis. Figure 3 shows 16 and 17 bars before 19 in the score. This is an approximation of the actual notes Horowitz plays. The bass notes on G seem to be more natural, the way Horowitz plays it directly after the descending B-natural, A, G-sharp, G, and it's easier to play! I feel it can be said that Horowitz has done more for this piece than any other pianist has ever done for any piece.

 

1930 Albert Coates and the London Symphony Orchestra
1941 Sir John Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic
1950 Sergei Koussevitsky and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra
1951 Reiner and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
1978 Ormandy and the New York Philharmonic
1978 Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic

Brahms

As a favor to his now father-in-law Toscanini, Horowitz agreed to perform Brahms D minor concerto for Toscanini's Brahms cycle. Horowitz was described as playing this with dazzling virtuosity. . . devoted strictly to a publication of the music's essential traits. His interpretation of this piece is known to be quite unique and remarkable. His rhythmic impetus, fantastically clear articulation, and power make his performance unlike any other, even to this day. About the Brahms Second Concerto, Horowitz had no real interest in it until he heard Schnabel and Furtwängler perform it around 1925. He was more impressed with the music than Schnabel's performance and he learned it in one summer. Horowitz would go on to play this in America and other places. There is a famous recording of this concerto with Toscanini from 1940, which Horowitz disliked a great deal. He said that Toscanini didn't allow him much room to express the music. "It was boring." There is a funny anecdote regarding this piece. During a tour in Germany, Horowitz had to perform this concerto and after the rehearsal, Horowitz and his party were invited to a bordello. Horowitz didn't want to go because he really didn't know the concerto well enough and would rather have worked on that. In the end, they went, but Horowitz, instead of . . .well . . . Horowitz just sat at the upright piano and practiced the octaves in the second movement. The next night there were all the girls up in one of the box seats.

1935 First Concerto with Toscanini
1936 First Concerto with Walter and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

1940 Second Concerto with Toscaini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra
1948 Second Concerto with Toscanini

Beethoven

In 1933 Toscanini had programmed a Beethoven cycle and was looking for a soloist. Toscanini didn't like soloists and especially stars. It should be noted that Horowitz and Toscanini were not in-law's at this time, they hadn't even met. Horowitz had heard Toscanini a few times in New York in 1928 and was struck by Toscanini's restraint on the podium. Horowitz was recommended by various people whose opinions Toscanini held in high regard. Horowitz was then engaged to perform the Beethoven Emperor Concerto with the Maestro Arturo Toscanini. Since he had never performed it, and he was intimidated by the music on Beethoven in general, Horowitz had no real conception of how the work should go. He played it a few times with various conductors before meeting with Toscanini. Horowitz was terribly nervous about meeting Toscanini. He had been told that Toscanini was like an ogar and that if Horowitz wasn't punctual Toscanini would throw him out! So about one-half hour before the scheduled time, Horowitz was circling the Astor Hotel (Tosanini's New York home). When they met they ran through the concerto. Horowitz mentioned to Toscanini that the piano was very poor, but that he would do his best. There was some discussion about tempo, but overall Toscanini was very pleased. After just one rehearsal, they performed it and it was generally well recieved. Horowitz then went on to play the work with many other orchestras including Fritz Reiner with whom he recorded the work in 1952. It can be noted that it was on the surrounding occasions of his performance with Toscanini when Horowitz first met Toscanini's daughter, Wanda.

1952 Reiner and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra

Mozart

In 1939 Horowitz and Toscanini had planned on performing the Mozart Concerto no. 23, K. 488. It was to be the last time either of them was to perform in Europe until after the war (Horowitz was Jewish and Toscanini was not on good terms with Mussolini.) As this was to be a charity concert, they switched to the Brahms Second at the last minute to attract more people. Nearly fifty years later, Horowitz finally got to record this work with Carl Maria Giulini. Horowitz and Giulini did not see eye-to-eye on this piece or on Mozart in general. In the end the recording is a success. It is a very unique and and rather joyous performance. Horowitz says that he chose to play the Busoni cadenza first because Mozart didn't often play his own written out cadenzas when he performed his concertos. Second, the Busoni is "pianisitc, highly musical and in the best of taste, reflecting Busoni's talent as a virtuoso and composer, and , above all, his great musical mind." (Horowitz was a great admirer of Busoni and had hoped to study with him, but unfortunately Busoni died before they could meet.)

1988 Guilini and the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala

Liszt

Horowitz performed both Liszt concertos in the 1920's and 30's. No recording is known to exist. Horowitz considered performing the first concerto very late in life, but he wanted to change some of the material so the piano would play a more central role. This project never materialized.