horowitz plays chopin polonaise-fantasie - live, 1974, pt2

[gerardbedecarter]

Thanks for uploading this.

[fredericfranc]

He ran the thing absoutely amazing, but actually messed up the climax-coda somewhat, sorry about that, but Horowitz will do that to you sometimes, his impulsiveness will betray him, and he will end up giving you this "forced-mechanical" sense in the endings, a bad thing to do Chopin...(in Schumann...who cares?..)

[kasyapa]

fredericfranc - i don't think he mangled it quite so badly as you do, but he was ever-experimenting and it led all kinds of places.

[fredericfranc]

@kasyapa ...the horowitzian manglings are the price one pays for what comes before the manglings...usually the price one becomes reconciled with paying without that much resentment...

[kasyapa]

fredericfranc - nicely turned phrase. ervin nyiregyhazi must turn you apoplectic!

[aardvaark069]

Oh that inimitable sound!

[kasyapa]

aardvaark069 - he was making it for you. :)

[trimar42]

ave

je partage

le + grand de tous les temps ,

présents et à venir ,

je crois

Fred

[kasyapa]

he has charm for some, clearly. i've heard him in concert one - i'd call it a shiny charm. i've felt nothing deep from him yet.

[jjp009]

@kasyapa The only part of this piece I have ever even attempted to learn was from 1:44-2:52. I think this is the most beautiful part. The Maestro's phrasing here is spine-chilling.

[ric55]

To those of us who really take the piano seriously, Horowitz is at once the great pianist and the great mystery. I am a good pianist and a player with a powerful sound- but Horowitz's power and dynamic range is just something else. He achieves things at the keyboard which are simply impossible to other mortals. As the critic Neville Cardus wrote-'Having heard him again, I am prepared to believe that he is the greatest pianist alive OR dead.'

[kasyapa]

they came from somewhere else, and carried us all back to that same place. thank heavens these echoes remain. (i'd enjoy experiencing some of your playing. is it on your channel?)

[KDVSradio903]

why can't pianists have this sort of charm anymore?

[kasyapa]

there are many complex factors involved. part of it goes down to a culture that has disassembled the energy it once gave to long-term arcs of thought and emotion. we have an instantaneous culture - at the cost of almost everything else.