Search - Domenico Scarlatti, Robert Schumann, Sergey Rachmaninov :: Leningrad - 1986

A lionhearted performance

Brother John | The O.C. | 03/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I concur with the earlier reviewer. This concert shows what Horowitz can do without the stigma of the mass media rigth on top of him, as evident in the Moscow performance (as good as that was). He is absolutely in tip-top shape with the Scarlatti sonatas too. Instead of the Mozart sonata he brings in the Schumann Kreisleriana. He recorded it in the studio the previous year, and this performance is quite a bit different. Yes, there are some technically sticky issues here and there - like the horrendous coda to the 3rd fantasie. But he seems so at ease as he tosses of some risk-taking passages as if it were nothing! Now, this is a pretty 'free' interpretation with tempi and rubatos abundantly everywhere. Again, quite a bit different than either of his studio acounts. The Liszt is quite good but the Chopin is unbeatable. Definitely his best live performance in recent years of the A-flat Polonaise. Even with a minor memory slip in the Rachmaninoff Polka, he is quite technically on top of this piece as I have rarely witnessed him before.

The only downside is that this concert was recorded using a portable cassette player, so the sound is less than good (though better sounding than the boot Boston 1969 recording). I'm curious if a professional recording was done of this concert or not. It's hard to imagine DG not taping this entire concert. Perhaps it'll surface one day. Until then, please hear this performance! A must-hear for any Horowitz fan!"

Only because they won't allow 10 stars

John Atherton | CINCINNATI, OHIO United States | 07/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Horowitz was rarely at his best for his most feverishly anticipated concerts and recitals. Beecham may have been to blame for the roller-coaster New York debut, but Horowitz's return to Carnegie Hall more than 30 years later also found him -- understandably -- suffering from nerves, and there are many other examples.

On the other hand, Horowitz said he often did better in the so-called second-tier cities -- Hamburg, for example, rather than Berlin.

All of which is to say that -- as we've heard for years -- Horowitz played much more beautifully in Leningrad during the historic return to Russia in 1986 than he had during the commercially recorded Moscow appearance immediately before. He's more relaxed, more probing -- altogether happier. This amateur recording is better than one could have hoped -- much better, for instance, than the one of Horowitz's Boston recital.

Add to all that the belief I share with many that Horowitz reached his greatest heights of musicianship in the very last years of his life and here you have an incalculable treasure."