Horowitz - The first solo recordings PART 1 (Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Prokofiev, Poulenc, Haydn...)

Vladimir Horowitz (1903 - 1989), piano Program : Beginning : 00:00 1928 (Victor Studio No.1, Camden, New Jersey) March 26 : Chopin: Mazurka in C-sharp minor, No.4 : 0:16 Debussy: Serenade for the Doll (Sérénade à la Poupée) : 4:09 April 2 : Bizet/Horowitz: Carmen Variations : 7:24 Scarlatti/Tausig: Capriccio in E major, () : 11:09 December 4 : Dohnanyi: Concert-Etude in F minor, No.6 : 13:55 January 4, 1929: Unknown location : Schubert/Liszt: Schwanengesang, No. 10 “Liebesbotschaft“ (The message of Love) : 16:20 1930 (Liederkranz Hall, New York City, New York) February 25 : Liszt: Valse Oubliée No.1 : 19:37 Liszt/Busoni: Paganini Etude No.5 in E major, BV B 76 (rejected take) : 22:05 March 4 : Chopin: Etude in F major, No.8 : 25:43 Horowitz: Danse Excentrique (also called « Moment Exotique ») : 28:13 Liszt: Paganini Etude No.2 in E-flat major, : 30:53 Liszt/Busoni: Paganini Etude No.5 in E major, BV B 76 : 34:15 December 30, 1930: Kingsway Hall, London, England : Prokofiev: Toccata in D minor, : 37:54 June 12, 1931: Beethovensaal, Berlin, Germany : Rachmaninoff: Prelude in G minor, No.5 : 41:40 1932 (Abbey Road Studio No.3, London, England) November 11 : Poulenc: Pastourelle (from the ballet “L’ Eventail de Jeanne“), FP 45 : 45:08 Poulenc: Toccata, FP 48 No. 3 : 47:32 Haydn: Sonata in E-flat major, Hob. XVI:52 : 1. Allegro : 49:35 2. Adagio : 55:26 3. Finale: Presto : 1:00:27 Rimsky-Korsakov/Rachmaninoff: Flight of the Bumblebee : 1:04:37 Stravinsky: “Danse Russe“ (Russian Dance) from Petrushka, K012 : 1:05:58 November 15 : Schumann: Presto Passionato (last movement of the Piano Sonata No.2 until 1838), : 1:08:25 Liszt: Funerailles (from “Harmonies poétiques et religieuses“), No.7 : 1:14:11 Historical reminder : Horowitz leaves Russia in April 1925, and makes his first solo concert in Berlin on the 2nd of January 1926 in the Beethovenhalle thanks to his impresario Alexandre Merovitch. After playing the first Tchaikovsky Concerto invited by the conductor Oskar Fried, then Eugen Pabst (to replace pianist Hélène Zimmerman at short notice), he moves to Paris and gives his first concert at the Paris Conservatory on February 12, 1926. It’s during that year that Volodia meets Arthur Rubinstein, his senior by sixteen years with whom he will have a long and tumultuous friendship. In 1928, Horowitz meets Alfred Cortot and the master accepts (with some reluctance) to give him some lessons. It’s also in Paris that Volodia meets the most important impresario of the American continent: Arthur Judson, who deals with soloists such as Heifetz, Landowska, Bartók but above all with two orchestras. As Merovitch never stops making him listen to his protégé, the manager plans a concert with the New York Philharmonic for January 28 in the USA. Horowitz leaves Europe on December 24, 1927 and makes his well-known American debut with Sir Thomas Beecham on January 12, 1928, playing the first Tchaikovsky Concerto. Afterwards, he has the chance to play with Stokowski and Koussevitzky but each time they only play his eternal “First of Tchaikovsky” or “Third of Rachmaninoff”. In solo, he performed Bach, Scarlatti already, many works of Chopin and Liszt’s sonata, which gave him a certain success, to the point that the Victor Talking Machine Company studio (in New Jersey) contacted him for a recording session. Thus, March 26, 1928, is officially the first recording of Vladimir Horowitz, followed on January 4, 1929, February 25, 1930, and March 4, 1930 by new recordings, which show the young Horowitz in all his magnificence. Nevertheless, Horowitz made fifteen piano rolls on February 1926 ( but as Groleau says: « These engravings, although very interesting because they show Horowitz in his early youth, suffer from the limitations specific to this recording technique. Playing so sharp, so virtuoso, using the pedal and dynamic dosages in such a millimetric way, could only come out looking dull. » (« Horowitz l’Intranquille », Jean-Jacques Groleau, translated by me) From June 1928, having acquired an international reputation, he toured both throughout the US and in Europe. In 1930, a studio in London suggests that he record a disc of Rachmaninoff’s third concerto ( and to complete the fourth side, he records the toccata of Prokofiev. A few years later, he returns to the (famous) Abbey Road Studio No.3 in London to burn more pieces of Poulenc, Haydn, Stravinsky, Schumann and Liszt (as he recorded his sonata four days ago). A few notes about my YouTube video : - All editions I used for this score video are URTEXT except for the fingerings, the Carmen Variations and the Danse Excentrique - Horowitz does the Ossia at 23:04, 23:45, 35:14, 35:53 - Horowitz makes plenty of changes to the scores (cuts, simplifications, adds) that I did not mentioned.