Word: horowitz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Freddy now dates this part of his life as "B.C.-before concerto," which means before the 1941 Sunday when he heard a broadcast of Toscanini and Vladimir Horowitz, playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B Flat. B.C. includes Freddy's boyhood, thumping a drum and selling musical instruments. For ten years Freddy Martin's band played prestige jobs like the Waldorf-Astoria, but never made much money at it. His recording of Tchaikovsky's Concerto put him into the big time, in the movies and on the air, and shot his income up to about...
Prokofiev: Scythian Suite (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Desire Defauw conducting; Victor, 6 sides), Piano Sonata No. 7 (Vladimir Horowitz; Victor, 4 sides). Two good and noisy pieces by Russia's greatest contemporary. The earlier Scythian Suite (composed for a Diaghilev ballet in 1914) comes out better than the recent (1942) Sonata. Both are recorded for the first time in the U.S. Performance: good...
...Sonatas was only completed in 1942, and shows its composer at the peak of his skill as a piano writer. The grotesquely dramatic changes in mood and tempo certainly do not make for particularly pleasant listening but they reveal a highly ingenious and original style of composition. Vladimir Horowitz, who has introduced all of the "War" Sonatas in this country, does a fine job on music that is highly suited to his style of playing. The recording is good...
...Grande Valse Brillante in A Minor, Opus 34, is a waltz only by virtue of its three-four time; its tempo (lento) brings it closer to the dark introspective nocturnes and preludes. To Horowitz, however, a waltz must be a waltz; by speeding it up to almost twice its generally accepted tempo, he gives it a ballroom flavor it was never meant to have...
...Opus 22, an Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise in E flat, a work hampered both by an episodic lack of coherence and by a certain shallow virtuosity, Horowitz's amazing command of keyboard technique, unfortunately combined with a lack of feeling and perception, becomes especially noticeable...