Horowitz - The 1953-burnout concert (Brahms, Schubert, Chopin, Scriabin, Debussy, Liszt/Horowitz)
52,322 回視聴 2024/02/26に公開済み CARNEGIE HALL
Vladimir Horowitz (1903 - 1989), piano
February 25, 1953: Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York
Program :
Album cover : 00:00
Brahms: Rhapsody in E-flat major, Op.119 No.4 : 0:16
Schubert: Sonata in B-flat major, D.960 :
1. Molto moderato : 5:36
2. Andante sostenuto : 18:49
3. Scherzo "Allegro vivace con delicatezza" : 27:19
4. Allegro ma non troppo : 31:13
Chopin: Nocturne in E minor, Op.72 No.1 : 38:37
Chopin: Scherzo No.1 in B minor, Op.20 : 42:49
Scriabin: Sonata No.9, Op.68 ("The Black Mass") : 51:02
Scriabin: Etude in B-flat minor, Op.8 No.11 : 57:50
Scriabin: Etude in C-sharp minor, Op.42 No.5 : 1:01:24
Debussy: The Little Shepherd (Le Petit Berger) : 1:04:57
Debussy: Serenade for the Doll (Sérénade à la Poupée) : 1:07:06
Liszt/Horowitz: Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 in C-sharp minor : 1:10:05
Encores :
Chopin: Waltz in A minor, Op.34 No.2 : 1:19:34
Clementi: Rondo from the Sonata in B-flat major, Op.47/Op.24 No.2 : 1:24:50
Prokofiev: Precipitato from Sonata No.7 in B-flat major, Op.83 : 1:28:14
Historical reminder :
This is Horowitz's last concert before twelve years. January 1953 marks a landmark for Vladimir Horowitz : this is the 25th anniversary of his American Debut. He plans to play three concerts for the occasion.
The first concert he gave in the US was in January 12, 1928 at Carnegie Hall playing Tchaikovsky's' first piano concerto with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. He wants to play the concerto again the same day twenty-five years later, and this time Georges Szell conducts the NY Philharmonic Orchestra.
The second concert is a solo piano recital on February 25, 1953. Horowitz wants to include the last Schubert sonata in B flat Major in the program, which he admires a lot. However, he had always said « it's too long, too introspective. You can't capture the attention of five thousand people for four long movements of Schubert, it would be a wasted effort. » Well, he changed his mind and is performing it around Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, trying all possible tempi. Wanda criticizes him for playing too slowly. She grumbles : « I thought it would never end! » Suddenly, he makes cuts in the fourth movement and plays faster. The criticism in California is good: « Here, this new challenge took him up, he won the game, his style is perfectly Schubertian without a trace of Russian feeling in his playing. », while in New York we are talking about a « perverted, eclipsed game of programming errors ».
And immediately after, a new tour begins to prepare his concert program in March. Vladimir has had enough, he cancels concerts more and more often: a cold, a sore throat and he refuses to play. He is fifty years old and hanging by a thread. He remembers one concert as a nightmare: « My God, there were people sitting all over the stage and I had to come back and play an encore, Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat, [with] a big crescendo. I was exhausted, I felt my heart ready to burst. My stomach was in knots and I felt like it was going to slide back into my mouth, the tension was so incredible that I really felt like I could drop dead at the end of the piece. When I hit the last chord, there was the same applause as usual with people pounding the floor. And I heard a man say to his wife, “My God, have you ever listened to anything like that?” and she replied "that's nothing, wait until you hear what he's going to play next, he's just starting!" I had played with all my heart, and she said, "it's nothing nothing, wait a little, he will do a lot, a lot, a lot more”: no, I couldn’t give more. » It happened on March 23, 1953 in Minneapolis, and this time, it's not about his usual stomach aches or other trifles : he really couldn't get on stage. Vladimir Horowitz can not play any other note.
« His old demons resurface with more force than ever, and the simple idea of having to appear in front of an audience again is beyond his strength. No doubt because he had accustomed him too much to expecting feats which made each of his appearances more perilous and risky; no doubt also because deep down he doubted more than one can imagine, and the idea that he could continue to be loved by the public for something other than his insane octaves seemed to him Utopia. » (from « Horowitz l'Intranquille », Jean-Jacques Groleau, translated by me)
In general, Horowitz had a very good memory and did not unintentionally skip parts in the pieces he played on stage. The fact that he did so (almost an entire page in the rondo of Clementi (1:26:49) and two measures in the precipitato of Prokofiev (1:29:28)) reveals his high level of nervousness that was consuming him at that moment in the concert.
A few notes about my YouTube video :
All editions I used for this score video are URTEXT except for the fingerings, the rondo of Clementi and the Liszt-Horowitz Hungarian Rhapsody.
Horowitz makes plenty of changes to the scores (cuts, simplifications, adds) that I did not mentioned.