horowitz in hamburg - last recital - chopin polonaise op 53

[jonjon1957jonjon]

Oh so crisp, so upright.

[Rachmaninoffkid]

And this, being his last concert, at his most musically mature ever, memories of my life pass throuhg my head in the most pleasant montage. That’s what Horowitz was going for, the most moving sort of sounds.

[forgottenbooks]

I just came out after listening to Lang Lang play this. I feel normal now.

[sergiozanetti68]

cosa dire......sembrano tutti principianti, è come se ci fosse una chiara logica colta dal ritmo,dagli accenti,dalle sfumature. interpreta con intelligenza forse è questo che lo rende genio.

[sergiozanetti68]

cosa dire......sembrano tutti principianti, è come se ci fosse una chiara logica colta dal ritmo,dagli accenti,dalle sfumature. interpreta con intelligenza forse è questo che lo rende genio

[zicekanelo]

Epico

[kasyapa]

zicekanelo - what an ending to a life, eh?

[zicekanelo]

@kasyapa Una vez escuché una interpretacion donde Horowitz tenia muchos errores a causa de enfermedades y medicamentos.... pero esta interpretacion es la mejor que he escuchado de Horowitz de esta magnifica polonesa, gracias por la grabacion, por cierto yo tengo una grabacion increible de Szpilman interpretando esta pieza, por si la quieres, saludos

[kasyapa]

zicekanelo - ¡hola! pardon mi uso del babelfish. él tenía muchos apuros durante su curso de la vida - i' m feliz que él podía hacer tal belleza en el piano - yo consideró lo una vez, y lo era el momento más grande de mi vida.

[Labienus]

on the fringe discussion tried this before but I was a little perplexed that I never recall hearing it before. Interestingly I came across this on p342 of Plaskin, where H in discussion with Hupfer refers to it-"which he (Horowitz)

called the "fringe". His quotation marks. As if to say that was H's term for the felt strip-not a generally accepted one? Comments?

[kasyapa]

Labienus - ya, i believe that was his expression.

[MrZnoo]

it always seemed to me that his piano had the most beautiful basses,I could always recognize them

It does sound different,pleasantly different.

[kasyapa]

MrZnoo - the structure of his basses was terribly important to his sound in the concert hall. one of his late european reviewers spoke of the sound of his piano having a fullness like an organ, and that's very apropos. i came to horowitz, strange as it is to say, from a love for organ and harpsichord - and his sound made sense to me. i didn't start out with a love for the piano!

[Labienus]

Thanks-I never heard this before like it better than Vienna and others during this period seems more serene technically secure others seemed too concerned with making a big sound being the H of old

on "doctoring" pianos-nonsense-many pianists have details of regulation adjusted according to their technique and strengths doesn't make you play better I had heard in later yrs. he favored very light -hard to control and younger heavier I think they may have been tuned to make a bit brighter

[kasyapa]

he seems "straight" in the best sense here. he seems to have gained energy as he toured even as he possibly lost a bit in his body as he got a bit nearer to the end of life.

from what franz mohr told me to my face, he had no doctoring other than a light key weight - i think franz said 28 grams versus 33. that's it! he tuned at a440 in the u.s. but i've read elsewhere that he liked the treble tuning pushed a bit higher for brilliance - though that would seem to yield beats.

[Labienus]

Coincidentally, I have just been re-reading Remembering Horowitz-which has a perceptive introductory essay by Dubal (not so full of himself as he can be) and there are many distinquished pianists who tried the Horowitz piano during his lifetime and after all the comments are similar-light, fast, hard to control unless you knew how made perfect sense with his precise, super accurate technique but didn't explain H's sound

Only one of 125-can't recall who right now-referred to a doctored piano

[kasyapa]

oh, and it's also known that he liked to take the "fringe" on and off depending on hall acoustics and such. nothing bizarre.

[Labienus]

I thought I knew piano lore but what is the "fringe"?

Oh, that story of the heavy weighted piano much earlier in his career-like quicksand etc. I only recall-too lazy to go pull it out right now- was in the Plaskin biog.-which has never been held in high esteem- but much earlier anything is possible-but even earlier recordings sound like they could only be played that way on a "fast" instrument

[kasyapa]

the felt that damps the vibration of the partial sounding-length strings behind the bridge. taking it off makes for a brighter sound.

[Labienus]

Thanks-I know what you're talking about-just never heard it called that

I'll have to ask my tuner next time he's around

[mikern2001]

All the talk about how his piano was doctored! It wasnt like he was playing with a sampling piano or computer driven machine. All the other pianists are free to doctor their pianos. Can they produce the sounds Horowitz could?

[kasyapa]

it is nonsense. it wasn't doctored at all. there's no prescribed key weight. some pianists have tried v.h.'s piano and done terribly on it - the light weight means you have to have *more* control. ditto the huge sound it had in its prime. (i've played it and it alas is a wreck of what it was.) lot of envy out there.

[rachmaninov1873]

this version got any dvd? thx

[kasyapa]

no sry lol g2g

[h1hacter]

There is so much similarity in this and the version in Vienna. However, I believe these versions are better than his earlier recordings of the same piece.

[kasyapa]

agreed. it got the best right at the end, as with a lot of his playing. purity and focus and an even more solid, full voicing of chords.

[pr4n42061]

@h1hacter

I do absolutely agree with you! Horowitz' interpretation of this heroic Polonaise in 87 is way better than the previous ones, including at the Moscow recital in 86. I admire Horowitz so much because although he was already 83 years old, he was still capable on making huge improvements on his musical maturity.

[tOwTforce]

this version is so good thx you very much for uploading it

[kasyapa]

you are truly welcome. it makes me smile to know he was going on *interpreting* to the very end of his life.

[rachmaninov1873]

the best version ever!!

[kasyapa]

surely one of them. :)

[aardvaark069]

So old but such grandeur still!! No one else gives this piece such 'sweep' space, and resonance.

[kasyapa]

that sense of space is, i think, critical for real romantic playing. i hear almost none of it in playing of today. one reason i favor nyiregyhazi, too.

[rachmaninov1873]

he played much better than kissin, argerich, rubinstein

[kasyapa]

i would listen to him play his worst rather than them at their best. that's how much i like him. :)

[pianofolle]

WTF !!!!!!!!!! 

His fortissimo are super natural

[kasyapa]

having heard them in real life, i can assure you that when he really punched it - even at age 82 - it ~was~ a punch.

[mikern2001]

He had an innate sense of what worked, what to bring out, when to slow things down, speed them up, and how to MOVE the audience. They were never disappointed! A master, like none before him, and none after him.

[kasyapa]

that was his true personality. everything else conduced to it. having watched him closely the one time i saw him live, i can assure you that he was completely turned over to what he was doing - yet in total control - yet creating every moment.

[PhilPhilUSA]

What a great treat it is to hear this! Thank you for posting!

His rugged power, extroverted audacity, tremendous color, playful imagination... both leads the way.... and culminates a tradition. Humbling for us mere mortals. Hes like a celebrating kid - because he could walk out with his boots on! A creative genius. The picture says it all! Wonderful. Thank you very very much. With all that he has given us, i should have known there was something like this, too.

[bdrawers]

The intensity with which he attacked the instrument is breathtaking, as is the passion released..How fortunate we are to have had one like he in our midst.

Thank you for thinking to share!

[rushwarp]

Wow! He does sound "younger" then he did in Moscow. Since he never practiced, I guess he rounded into form later on that tour.:) Its amazing what can I say.

[cattleman6420012000]

When he was young he practised very long hours. He said so !!

[animalmother1065]

I think I prefer his interpretation of this piece from his later years... His earlier interpretations of it always seemed way too strict in terms of time.

There's speculation that Horowitz played with a corked piano, so to speak. That it was set up so that he didn't have to push all that hard to create such thunderous sounds. I don't know if I buy into it completely, but you have to ask yourself how a man in his 80's can play that loud. It almost seems unnatural for anyone to play that loud.

[kasyapa]

i've played that steinway twice - one around 1992, another time in 2003, and while in its prime (it is ruined now) it had a massive and colorful sound it wasn't doctored in a fake way. the key weight was unusually light, which can make things more difficult - but bear in mind that horowitz made his name on all kinds of pianos before he found 314 503.

[kasyapa]

incidentally, i confirmed with franz mohr that horowitz's piano was mechanically exactly the same as other steinways other than having an unusual light key regulation - 28 grams, i believe - which is interesting in that a pianist in the late 60s who substituted for horowitz for the camera checks for the 1968 carnegie hall tv recital said v.h.'s piano at that time had one of the heaviest actions he had ever played!

[animalmother1065]

When you say heavy action, do you mean that it was much easier to produce FF tones? I'm not sure I understand what you mean when you say heavy action.

Thanks for the confirmation! I may have been misleading you when I said corked piano, since it does give off a sense that he was cheating. What I meant, rather, was his piano was altered in such a way that it was easier for him to play so loud.

[kasyapa]

heavy action meaning offering a lot of resistance to one's finger-motions. :)

[Mortimer123]

There's such a sense of humor permeating everything. I had no idea the piece contained this aspect. I certainly agree with kasyapa's point about serenity. Again, an odd thing to say perhaps about a piece a flamboyant as this. But definitely there in this rendition. What an amazing document! And how wonderful to see that this difficult and haunted man finally found such peace and contentment. You can't play like this without being in a really good mood. Almost Rubinstein-esque in this regard.

[alexongcs]

The best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kasyapa]

i find it one of his most enjoyable performances - a certain serenity to it, not at all forced or hysterical. i like it that even in his last moments before an audience he was still in such control - and so creative.

[bernie10025]

VH paced himself much better in this performance of the polonaise than he did in the videotaped concerts in Moscow and Vienna.