Word: pianists
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...some upstart, unknown Russian steal his thunder, even if the piece was Tchaikovsky's thunderous Piano Concerto No. 1. Horowitz was unable to speak English, but it was clear from the rehearsals that even a translator would be no help. "Beecham thought I was of no importance," the pianist remembers. At the concert, the conductor adopted an even more ponderous tempo than during the preparation. As the concerto progressed, Horowitz felt the audience slipping inexorably away, and it was clear that desperate action was called...
...cossack charge. "I played louder, faster and more notes than Tchaikovsky wrote," he later recalled. Beecham tried to rally, but there would be no catching up. "I was doing it my way. He was doing it his way," says Horowitz. "On the first night, Beecham came in second." The pianist finished several bars ahead of the orchestra. The audience erupted in a frenzy. In the New York Times, Music Critic Olin Downes captured the intensity of the moment. "A whirlwind of virtuoso interpretation," he wrote, adding, "Mr. Horowitz has amazing technique, amazing strength, irresistible youth and temperament." At the next...
...York City, 1932. In a golden age of conductors, one stood above all the others in popular estimation: the ferocious, dynamic, irascible Arturo Toscanini. It was inevitable that the paths of the world's most celebrated conductor and its fastest-rising pianist would cross. Intersecting them was Toscanini's youngest child Wanda...
Sonia was the tragic Horowitz. A pretty but moody girl with dark burning Toscanini eyes, she was her famed grandfather's favorite and could speak to him in a way that nobody else dared. The maestro once asked her whether she would prefer to be a conductor or a pianist. "A conductor," Sonia replied. "It's easier." She was naturally talented, adept at the piano, a good writer, accomplished at painting and photography. But she was emotionally unstable, and Toscanini's death in January 1957 grieved her deeply. Five months later, she was severely injured in a motor-scooter accident...
...hope the pilot doesn't make a mistake and bring us into the Potomac. I forgot my galoshes," jokes Horowitz as the plane descends to National Airport. "I don't think that's funny," counters Wanda, sternly. When the plane lands, the pianist applauds loudly. The pilot rings the all-clear bell, and Horowitz perks up. "F sharp," he remarks. "I hope Mrs. Reagan will be there," says Wanda...