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Vladimir Horowitz: Recordings 1930-1951
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz: Recordings 1930-1951
Genres: Special Interest, Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (19) - Disc #1
  •  Track Listings (7) - Disc #2
  •  Track Listings (7) - Disc #3

The drawback to this comprehensive feast of prime Vladimir Horowitz is EMI's overzealous noise reduction, which smoothes the edges off of the great pianist's unique sonority. This is less bothersome in the 1951 sessions, w...  more »

     
   
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Amazon.com
The drawback to this comprehensive feast of prime Vladimir Horowitz is EMI's overzealous noise reduction, which smoothes the edges off of the great pianist's unique sonority. This is less bothersome in the 1951 sessions, which produced two delicious Scarlatti Sonatas not reissued elsewhere. The high-voltage Horowitz of the thirties was a more direct, less mannered artist than his older self. But his classic Liszt Sonata, Chopin Fourth Scherzo, and other solo EMI jewels are best heard via APR's superior (albeit more expensive) transfers. This erratic but exciting Rach 3 (with cuts, and a momentary third movement memory lapse) still awaits a CD transfer to match that of a bygone Seraphim LP. --Jed Distler

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CD Reviews

Super-human virtuosity of young Horowitz
Scriabinmahler | UK | 06/15/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)

"
I give 5 stars for this 3CD set despite the old recording sound. Sound of piano itself is reasonably well for the day once you are used to the background noise, good enough to convey the subtlty and delicacy of his playing.



Prokofiev's Toccata is still fastest and most exciting on records, verging on super-human. Rachmaninov's 3rd concerto is the best performance by Horowitz with more argency and intensity than his later recordings. The incandescent account of Liszt Sonata is one of the most compelling and beautiful along side Richter and Pogorelich's classic accounts.



Haydn and Scarlatti sonatas, Beethoven variations, Schumann's Toccata, Chopin Etudes, Stravinsky's Petrushka and so much more display Horowitz' keen sense of tonal colours and mind blowing fluency of playing."