Word: horowitz
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Among the ranks of those who, sincerely or insincerely, see ecstatic visions at the drop of a Rameau and consider Liszt slightly indecent, it is considered not quite proper to approve of Vladimir Horowitz. They sneer at this programs and at his private life, and scrupulously avoid his concerts. The days of Von Bulow, Busoni, and Rachmaninoff are gone, and Horowitz, the virtuosa of the new technique, is something of an anachronism...
...true tradition of Franz Liszt, the performer is the main attraction; instead of being awed by the grandeur of Beethoven, his audiences leave the recital babbling of the magnificence of Vladimir Horowitz. This is all great fun; whether it is a good thing from an aesthetic point of view is a sore point. At any rate, Horowitz has the most flawless technique of anyone alive, is quite aware of the fact, and plans his programs and performances accordingly...
Musically the most interesting was Horowitz's Chopin. By choosing the Nocturnes in E Minor and F Sharp Major and the Ballade in G Minor, he faced the ticklish problem of making three rather schmalzy examples of Chopin appear credible. And his success was immense. In the Nocturnes, especially, the gently charm with which he played was a welcome change both from the rather brittle tone he usually uses and from the gooey-tear-stained manner in which Chopin's Nocturnes are too often played...
...Ballade was loss satisfactory. The piece itself is too long, too repetitions, and despite its extraordinary beauty, exaggeratedly dolorous. Horowitz, by underplaying it, made it, perhaps, more acceptable to his audience, but thereby failed to get the idea across. Furthermore, his rubato was rather unorthodox and his left hand, at times, too prominent, thus creating the episodic effect of a Classical Rondo, rather than the flowing contimity so typical of Chopin...
...situation is even worse. Kilenyi and Cortot slaughter the etudes symphoniques and Myra Hess distorts the Carnaval, while the toccata, Kreisleriana, and sonatas exist only in ancient and unavailable Victor sets. The other piano works are mostly unrecorded. Liszi and Franck are brutally manhandled by everyone but Petri and Horowitz. Here Louis Kentner typifies the wasted talent: known in America for a few excellent Mozart recordings, Kentner himself considers Liszi his piece do resistance...