Horowitz plays
One of the things that most fascinates me here (aside from the obvious virtuosity of Horowitz’s flying fingers) is the remote quality of his face. It’s as though he is observing his fingers from a greater distance than usually separates the head and the hands. He’s the controller, they are his minions. It struck me in the final third of the video that he resembles a master puppeteer, watching from behind the scenes the effect that his marionettes (the hands and fingers) are creating.
Then there’s a priceless moment right after he finishes, when he allows himself to demonstrate just a smidgen of satisfaction:
Oh, and I’m not sure of the date of the recording, but I’m pretty sure he was very old.
From Wiki:
Oscar Levant, in his book, “The Memoirs of an Amnesiac,” wrote that Horowitz’s octaves were “brilliant, accurate and etched out like bullets.”…[Horowitz] frequently played chords with straight fingers, and the little finger of his right hand was often curled up until it needed to play a note; to Harold C. Schonberg, “it was like a strike of a cobra.”
This video is from a 1968 Carnegie Hall recital. He was 65 at the time — not quite “very” old. Perhaps his most famous encore was his transcription of Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever”, linked below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uNh3Um7LaM
Great fun.
effess: no, I’d better not call that “very old”!
Horowitz, Gould and Tatum, and I’m replete!
One of the most delightful things about Neo is her pulling things out of the blue, the unexpected, for us to share.
It strikes me, watching Vlad’s fingers, that he could make them do what mine and most others cannot–flexing only the DIP joints, and flexing only a PIP joint whilst the DIP remains extended. (D=distal, P=proximal, IP=interphalangeal)
And his musical memory, as voluminous as an encyclopedia.
Sweet touch at the end.
Thanks, Neo.
Sorry, never a Horowitz fan, always a Rubinstein fan, and he played up until age 95.
That concert was a performance given by a performer. Horowitz knew how to keep his cult at maximum fervor.
I read an anecdote ascribed to an established pianist’s page turner. During a rehearsal, they came to a place in the score where the pianist had written ‘Look up’, but the pianist played matter-of-factly on. During the performance, she cast her eyes upward and arched her body, transported by the music’s sublimity.
Was she a good pianist? Yes. Was Horowitz a virtuoso of the highest order? Yes.
Nevertheless.
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I hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend.
JaneLK: I prefer Rubinstein to Horowitz, as well. But Horowitz is amazing nevertheless.
I find Horowitz more exciting than Rubinstein, but sometimes it misfires. I suppose it depends somewhat on the piece and the composer. Novaes was no slouch either.
Two terrific music books come to mind. The first is “A Romance on Three Legs”, about Glenn Gould’s search for a perfect piano. The second is Nat Hentoff’s “Listen to the Stories” about jazz and country music. Great story about how Dizzy Gillespie integrated a motel swimming pool. (Note: you can read read more about these books — and order them — via Amazon link on this website.)
As long as I have been playing music, I have yet to reach that level, and probably never will. Skill of that order is a gift from somewhere. It is superhuman. It also requires about 12 hours of practice a day, for your entire life.
Sadly, as many know, you can never become as good as possible. The body simply does not allow it. One’s ability to project from the fingertips what comes from the soul is viciously pummelled by age, at all levels.
Vladimir Horowitz on practice: “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don’t practice for three days, the world knows it.”
Neo, are you familiar with David Sudnow’s 1978 book “Ways of the Hand?” It might be pertinent to the disconnect between hands and face.
Oh hey, a video from my favorites right up on Neo’s page! And what a good one. Such a great performance.