fleubis wrote:Hmm! Op.25 No.10. This is one piece I added to my "not playing this anymore" list after hearing Horowitz play this in person (2nd row seat!). Anyway, I agree those measures 27 & 28 are at the very least a bit perplexing.
Did Horowitz play the octaves with finger legato and audible inner melody or as a cascade of noisy staccato octaves with lots of pedal?
No, definitely not finger legato--not possible at the speed he played it. Yes lots of pedal, but in spite of this pedaling the inner voices came through most of the time. I recall on several instances, him playing the top notes with the 3rd finger! Horowitz was not as his best when I heard him, being under the influence of drugs at the time. I don't think he ever recorded this particular etude.
Were you at the concert from which this recording originates?:
fleubis wrote:Hmm! Op.25 No.10. This is one piece I added to my "not playing this anymore" list after hearing Horowitz play this in person (2nd row seat!). Anyway, I agree those measures 27 & 28 are at the very least a bit perplexing.
Did Horowitz play the octaves with finger legato and audible inner melody or as a cascade of noisy staccato octaves with lots of pedal?
No, definitely not finger legato--not possible at the speed he played it. Yes lots of pedal, but in spite of this pedaling the inner voices came through most of the time. I recall on several instances, him playing the top notes with the 3rd finger! Horowitz was not as his best when I heard him, being under the influence of drugs at the time. I don't think he ever recorded this particular etude.
And despite of this messy playing you have been that impressed, that you didn't want to have a look at this study for your own? Ok, I understand that: This etude indeed is very difficult, when well and correct played. Sadly mostly there comes out a fortissimo thunderstorm. Without any Schadenfreude I notice that pianists like him would probably not pass a nowadays exam very well with pieces like that. Who of his generation could do it well? Backhaus (even older...) and ??
Ferruccio, Horowitz did two concerts in Tokyo at that time, and fortunately the one I went to was NOT this one. I cringe anytime I see this performance. Wish they had recorded the one I went to instead. This it absolutely his all time worst performance (one has to agree with Wanda on this). The performance I heard was much better, but still nowhere close to his recorded performances, and he did play this etude better when I heard him.
As I recall, a year so later, Horowitz returned to Tokyo in sort of an "apology concert", and by that time he was off the drugs and I was no longer living in Tokyo and so did not get to hear this performance, which by all reports was light years ahead of this disaster we see on YouTube.
Of course, I was 30 years younger back then and seeing HorowItz play chopsticks would have impressed me (but then as now--octave playing is not something I do really well). During that 30 year interval since, I really don't regret not working on this etude. What I remember most is the incredible dynamic range which is significantly compressed on ALL recordings (at that time CD's were just coming out!). Yes, those sforzandos and agogic accents...yes, there were still there to an extent, drugs or no drugs.
alfor wrote:Admittedly Chopin's orthography often is quite sophisticated and you will hardly find any older edition where the editors did NOT (tacidly) change the notation of[/color] bars 27 and 28 of the Etude op. 25 No. 10!!
dito: bars 56 & 57 of the Polonaise-Fantaisie (not as awkward as the former example, but still a bit odd).
Best regards, Alfor S. Cans
Music is a higher revelation than wisdom and philosophy (Beethoven)
Alfred, enjoyed hearing all those great performances of Op.25 No.10--all better than the Horowitz performance I heard. Quite surprised that Kreutzer took the time to edit Op.1--I have never heard a live performance of this, and it's seldom recorded. (This would certainly be an item for your Opus 1 recital program!) It was very interesting to play through this work again in such a nice, uncluttered HIRES score, Alfred.
I have yet not found the referenced recording of the Bolero in your "Alfor's Recordings" so perhaps you have not posted it yet.
fleubis wrote:Ferruccio, Horowitz did two concerts in Tokyo at that time, and fortunately the one I went to was NOT this one. I cringe anytime I see this performance. Wish they had recorded the one I went to instead. This it absolutely his all time worst performance (one has to agree with Wanda on this). The performance I heard was much better, but still nowhere close to his recorded performances, and he did play this etude better when I heard him.
As I recall, a year so later, Horowitz returned to Tokyo in sort of an "apology concert", and by that time he was off the drugs and I was no longer living in Tokyo and so did not get to hear this performance, which by all reports was light years ahead of this disaster we see on YouTube.
Of course, I was 30 years younger back then and seeing HorowItz play chopsticks would have impressed me (but then as now--octave playing is not something I do really well). During that 30 year interval since, I really don't regret not working on this etude. What I remember most is the incredible dynamic range which is significantly compressed on ALL recordings (at that time CD's were just coming out!). Yes, those sforzandos and agogic accents...yes, there were still there to an extent, drugs or no drugs.
Thank you for the recording link, Alfred. I do no know why I couldn't find it. This performance of the Bolero is nothing short of SPECTACULAR, and is really something special, as you suggested. I'm glad to have it in my library.
