HOROWITZ TRANSCRIPTION of MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition (1947) 4/4

[antoniotrovato1]

Unico !!!!!!

[pitchfish3]

I'm speechless!! Awesome!

[maestroanth]

Mad scientist at his finest work.....

I think everyone looking at this are pianists..........haha

[maestroanth]

Mad scientist at his finest work.....

[paulahuchhuch]

JUST EX TRA OR DI NA RYYYYYYYYYYY...THANK YOU :))

[IRIQUOIS227]

Horowitz was successful i my opinion in drawing 'symphonic' sound from he piano. we've lost so many of the "great artists" of music. not only performers, but composers.

[IRIQUOIS227]

Horowitz was successful i my opinion in drawing 'symphonic' sound from he piano.

[keetner]

Brilliant transcription!

[fledgehog]

so much excitement and energy...the swell from 6:01-6:06 must have been absolutely mindblowing in person...even on this old grainy recording it's unreal!

[aardvaark069]

The cheap seats in orchestra hall Chicago are the best acoustics in the hall for piano.

[PianRobert]

This pianist is one of the best pianist in the whole world.. One instrument, but the sound of an Orchestra. To bad he is dead..:( but his music lives in my heart

[IRIQUOIS227]

@PianRobert is he really?

[cirosuperiore]

whether howorwitz ws the greatest ever remains to be answered. but damned that is great piano playing!

sheer power.

what i dont understand is that he sat so low on the piano his elbows so low and his hands to high up and yet he could still play so fast.

[ccdg1066]

@cirosuperiore Glen Gould also sat "low in the saddle" - but I wouldn't know how that might have affected their sound or technique. I think you'd need a proper scientific study to analyze this properly. It may be something like golfing where some of the best golfers do not conform to the best practices in posture and stroke, but nevertheless they excel.

[IRIQUOIS227]

@cirosuperiore saves on upper and lower arm fatigue. his finger height above the keys is also inexplicable especially considering the force and acuity he was well known for.

[cirosuperiore]

@IRIQUOIS227 i tried to sit low myself like VH or Glenn Gould, but that really hurts the fingers in the tendon and muscle region, however it is makes playing more accurate. sitting high makes playing fast but comes with a good amount of missed notes. can't quite make up my mind.

[IRIQUOIS227]

@cirosuperiore my professor of piano sat low and CLOSE to the keyboard. played great. i couldn't do it, but i did try to keep my elbows level with the keyboard.

[cirosuperiore]

@IRIQUOIS227 i think your prof is on to something. that may be the best approach, but i'm not holding my breath,.

[IRIQUOIS227]

@cirosuperiore maybe. from looking at Horowitz in the picture, he seems to do the same thing.

[IRIQUOIS227]

Rachmaninoff even let him arrange his third concerto to suit himself. (Horowitz) an uncanny pianist and musician!!

[kasyapa]

IRIQUOIS227 - second sonata, actually. :)

[IRIQUOIS227]

@kasyapa i love this transcription. horowitz was a MASTER MUSICIAN!!

[IRIQUOIS227]

@kasyapa i love this transcription. horowitz was a MASTER MUSICIAN!! there is the 1947, and 1951 performance. i love them both.

[inazuma3gou]

Whoever invented recording device just in time for Horowitz. Thank you.

[sagalat]

Colossal Just Takes Your Breath Away.....Can't break my prozac in half....Not Tonight

[oracle2world]

Wonder why he had to rearrange it. The original was FOR piano.

[GeneralKuno]

@oracle2world

He only added some embellishments to the piece because he thought the original version was "too introverted"

[oracle2world]

@GeneralKuno - you think Mussorgsky could play his own piano music he wrote?

[GeneralKuno]

@oracle2world

Well, from what I've read, at age 9 he was already playing John Field's Piano Concerto. No doubt that he could play his compositions.

[IRIQUOIS227]

@oracle2world

so is his transcription.

[IRIQUOIS227]

@oracle2world

so is his transcription. this is the 1947 rendition. his second was in 1951. I don't think he played this in public again.

[IRIQUOIS227]

@oracle2world

so is his transcription. this is the 1947 rendition. his second was in 1951. I don't think he played this in public again. Horowitz could symphonic SIZE out of the piano. truly makes one reconsider the worthless nature of mankind!

[cirosuperiore]

the one and only, VH. no one does it better.

[RobertDoormanNL]

powerfull song!! like 04:34 :)

[uhartchristian]

a very good example to see or better hear the quality of orchestration in Horowitz play. It is hardly to believe one man did play this. But he did. And the quality of sound the different colours in sound its all so perfect. No one can compare this to other pianists. There is only one Horowitz able to do this....

[BenMcCormack91]

If you like it, listen, if you don't like it, then don't listen. That a satisfactory enough solution for everyone?

[danyarivw]

Horowitz did the "Mahler Act" when rewriting the ouverture to Don Giovanni,

he hust wrote a Horowitian Mussorgski. I like it even is not the same,but is a new piece of wonderful music

[cracanel1]

How come anybody who dares complaining about the way Horowitz butchered this fine piece of music is modded down to oblivion?

There must be a lot of jealous fanboys lurking around...

[danyarivw]

cracanel, this a typical jewish quality, changing the order of the established things

see Moses, Jesus, Marx, Freud, Einstein for the big revolutions.

[demosj]

Because they're wrong.

[MrLoseth]

Horowitz simply revised the Mussorgsky piano music, he didn't completely rewrite it from the orchestral score.

[bruford55]

wow no wonder elp stole this clip and made an album out of it this is really classy and frantic with great over tones it has this slow melodic build up and explosive pockets that unravel its great,.,.,.

[morvensky]

This is pretty fucking sweet.

[hymntonight]

Orchestral versions just sound too tame and too clean for me in comparison with Horowitz transcription and interpretation. Horowitz makes the work wild, dirty, explosive - just as I like it.

[IRIQUOIS227]

@hymntonight maybe you could listen to some PREDOMINANTLY brass orchestras. With the Brass, it makes it sound unreal! at least i think so

[IsamuTakekura]

i dunno if its the recording quality but i find the original music written by mussorgsky (especially the one played by evgeny kissin) way better. this one is soo... i dunno the original piece was written for piano, then someone made an orchestral version of it, thats fine, but then re-writing that orchestral version back to piano makes it weird :S the original one is more suited for piano solo (just sharing an opinion)

[demosj]

I actually believe that the Pictures were enriched through this journey - first Muggorsky, then Ravel, and ending with Horowitz. It's a circle beginning from the piano, progressing to the orchestra, and returning to the piano again. In that last transition, Horowitz captures the color and grandeur of the symphony and infuses the original composition with it.

It's a wonderful tribute to Mussorgsky.

[SlyFox616]

WOW!

No words...no words whatsoever...

[tedbohne]

Horowitz's transcription is best in his '47 performance. I suspect his hands were probably giving him some grief by '51. The early performance heard here is clean and melodious unlike any other of the Maestro's performed that I've heard.

[PhilPhilUSA]

Magnificent, thank you for posting!

[victorTBONE777]

absolutely discusting transcription...he destroyed a musical masterpiece...especially in the great gate...i hope this doesnt happen again...

[SCHneiDen777]

wow. victorTBONE777: you are a complete idiot or you are joking. seriously. No one can be this uncreative!

What Horowitz did is called "creating". Maybe you've heard of it. Then again, maybe not.

[JupiterIV]

@SCHneiDen777 Please permit me to throw in my two cents here by quoting Vladimir himself:

They say I put graffiti on Mussorgsky. Well I don't give a damn. I worked hard on that transcription. The original was a little too introverted, and I think that's because Mussorgsky was a little bit of a dilletante. Ravel orchestrated it, and what I did was "pianostrate" it.

[SCHneiDen777]

My God! This is like listening to the soul of Russians! Thank you Horowitz. forever indebted to your jaw dropping affinity for soul and ivory.

Those end tremelos are the most glamorous stupendous grandiose bells I have ever heard on a keyboard! Rachmaninov would cry joy. Liszt would definitely! approve!

Thanks for posting this most inspiring music that Horowitz created.

[Darklord12356]

It was hard enough as it was originally written!...lol...Horowitz was crazy...

[asdfgftw]

hmmm parts 2 and 3 are labeled as 1951. must be a typo. anyway, this recording is... well, to put it one way, horowitz wasn't a studio pianist. he was a concert pianist. his genius really only shined through on stage. that's not to say that he couldn't make good recordings, but.. his live performances tended to be more captivating.

(just my opinion..)

[freeqwerqwer]

I attended a Horowitz solo concert performance in Orchestra Hall in Chicago and heard him play Liszt B minor sonata.  I walked out the hall with a tremendous emotional feeling like no other pianist recital had given me----and I sat on the cheapest highest tier balcony seats.

[maradaatra]

Had the exact same experience in Ann Arobor -- also sitting in the absolute cheapest seat, in the last balcony row. My head head was spinning for several days after that concert. Must have been 1976-77...

[IRIQUOIS227]

@freeqwerqwer cheep seats are fine. I find i just need to get my ears in there!

[masterflamer123]

he's a pianist on steriods

I need his transcription

[poisednwiped]

An incredible technique! NOTHING was diifcult for Horowitz, and yet, I'll take Sviatislav Richter's recording any day. Kissin is also good as is Pletnev.

[cctunes]

As far as I'm concerned, he did for the piano what Ravel did for the orchestra. Made it as brilliant as the music called for.

[freeunion]

an insipid, vulgar transcription -- such a big sound, such a small mind! to hear the real soul of this piece, listen to Sviatoslav Richter's immortal live 1958 performance.

[aardvaark069]

I don't think it's THAT insipid......but then I do drink cold vodka with vermouth and call it a Martini. Maybe that says something about me.

[zenmusicguy777]

horowitz's magnificent reworking of mussorgsky's PICTURES in no way takes away from RIchter's version of the original....just a case of apples and oranges

[SCHneiDen777]

golden apples and oranges if you will.

[dadfurry]

Freeunion - I have never really liked Horowitz, he was always too much power and showmanship in my opinion, and often the music was lost (occasionally though something was also found). However, you're completely wrong on your take on Horowitz's transcription. If you know anything about Mussorgsky's history and growth as a composer, you know he would be absolutely delighted with this flashy over the top rendition.

[dadfurry]

I have played the Mussorgsky version of this piece and always found that it was missing something - not anything large, but still something. Horowitz finds that something and makes this set of pieces into the composition it was meant to be. Don't get me wrong, the Richter performance is amazing, but this is simply transcendent.

[florestankiki]

ce qui est interprété ici permet de palper la réalité des tableaux référents, mieux que la version Richter il me semble ! cette version est la plus prodigieuse que je connaisse, en tous cas ! merci encore, Horowitz !!!

[mandyschulz]

i also played it - its like flying...