Horowitz in London - Chopin: Polonaise-fantaisie, Op.61 (1982)

Vladimir Horowitz, one of the greatest piano legends, passed away 30 years ago. 3 years before I was born. Unfortunately I could never see him in concert. Fortunately, there are many videos of this master out there for us to enjoy.
Frédéric Chopin
Polonaise-fantaisie, Op.61
Vladimir Horowitz, piano
May,1982
Royal Festival Hall, London.

[@petergolding5733]

I was lucky enough to be at his last London concert and get to meet him after. Remarkable man and what struck me most was the incredible sound he made. In the Polonaise Op. 53 I thought the roof was going to come down

[@stefanufer608]

I was there too! - 1986 - about the only one of his final concerts not to have been recorded in any format at all - grrrr!

[@helenavondrakenstein4969]

Fantastic...great

[@rozchatt]

Horowitz is my favorite. Thanks for posting!

[@fulviojommelli6193]

Poetry and fingers extended. Incredible technique. Unique pianist.

[@kpokpojiji]

I had the great fortune of hearing Horowitz twice. While we are lucky to have the videos, they don't quite catch the aura of him in person. The lyricism, then the thunder and electricity that made itvseem like Horowitz and the piano were going to explode and take the audience with them. He could alfo project sound, so that it seemed to just precipitate out of the air, like something transcendentally magical.

[@ryohagitani892]

I like the piece played by him. The first time I heard and liked this was when I heard his live performance recorded in the U.S.A and now I listen feeling Horowitz was still Horowitz. Great. Thank you Max.

[@susiacosta3846]

Maravilloso!. Gracias por compartirlo, Max.

[@Caocao8888]

The variety of dynamics and tone colors is astounding. And of course his use of rubato is without equal.

[@fernandorivas7419]

Buenas tardes Max. Mientras escucho y veo esta fabulosa interpretation de este "master out there", te agradezco compartir este vídeo. Saludos cordiales desde Santiago,Chile. Dr. Fernando Rivas-Burattini.

[@nurrylee-piano2613]

My god, this is incredible

[@EABussi]

No words, no nothing...only ears and mind¡¡¡

[@EABussi]

After Chopin, of course¡¡¡

[@user-bi6fg9iy6o]

great !!! thank u !

[@adri.g]

Gracias por compartir, me encanta esta versión. Lástima que el público no pare de toser.

[@DanielRicardoCA]

Covid

[@denisesapnal8189]

amazing....forever....as if telling us endless story👏👏👏

[@profhennig]

danke, super

[@zzmike]

I think one of Chopin's most inspired pieces: and Horowitz simply makes it his own!

[@alvarojosetasconospina3583]

Gracias..!!!

[@rashashelma8631]

Thamk you💃💃💃💃

[@chickenflavor9880]

I cant believe this is live.

[@taniaamendola7855]

Che pianista meraviglioso.....eterno

[@strawberry3634]

Thank u , Max!! Have a good day☺️

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

Exelente!!!!! 🇲🇽

[@CarmenReyes-em9np]

Se s8ente la interprtacion. de Hotowits. 🇲🇽🎶. 😍. 👏👏👏👏🎵 🌛 🌛 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💐 🙏

[@ottorinoperuzzi7051]

Vladimir Martha due grandissimi pianisti grazie maestri

[@helenavondrakenstein4969]

No one comes even close to Horowitz... absolutely amazing

[@DrTagliacozzi]

This is late Chopin, a difficult, complex piece with several shifts -- key changes, rhythmic variations etc. To judge Horowitz's performance, it's useful to listen to several other interpretations. Unfortunately, in this instance, he suffers from comparison to Richter, Cziffra, Perahia et al. To my ear, Horowitz simply doesn't realize the work as a whole and it sounds unduly harsh and disjointed.

[@rudolfgolezpianist4322]

I don't know this very well. But the impression i get is this is not a Chopin style, it is a Horowitz style...

[@ulfwernernielsen6708]

Listen to the 1966 performance by Horowitz .

[@miamargareta9997]

More like the Scriabin sound with extreme fortes but still ,there s only one Horowiz in the universe ; Original Exquisite and Uncompromising 💞

[@DynastieArtistique]

This is 100% how Chopin would’ve wanted it played. Your ears (and most people today) are tainted with the bland sound of modern pianists’ playing. This here is called true artistry

[@pvonberg]

This is Horowitz's piece. No one else can touch him.

[@ulfwernernielsen6708]

The 1966 Horowitz performance was great.

[@vankasnak1]

Looks like you haven't heard Richter.

[@Thiago-px9ev]

I really like Rafal Blechacz on that one

[@elias7748]

No.

[@JoelCastleton]

This is ridiculous. No one pianist can be the only one to own a piece. I feel like I own a piece when I memorize it, but other pianists can do the same.

[@sk-fk7om]

God‼️

[@Bobby-vz9eq]

Nobody can play the part from 7:58 to 9:00 with the same expressivity

[@polonaise]

best

[@NN-rn1oz]

Horowitz did not play wrong notes. Only sometimes notes that are not in the score. I would listen to a whole recital of Horowitz's "wrong notes".

[@leandrodepaivacarneiro1647]

Ele tira um som tão maravilhoso do Piano, que é inacreditável. Cada nota que ele toca tem um significado especial e peculiar. Um gigantesco Artista!

[@republiccooper]

Tambem ajudava que ele tinha um piano especial para ele em seus concertos. O mêcanismo interno foi ajustado para dar um som particular e o teclado ficou mais fácil de tocar.

[@emc499]

Vamos convir que somente um Grande Pianista poderia ter um piano especial para ele em seus concertos.

[@LazlosPlane]

Horowitz's greatness lay in his ability to play in the grand Romantic style of the late 19th century, much of which is considered in poor taste today. Certainly, the odd thing is that what makes us cringe (and one SHOULD cringe, often) about his playing is also what makes the performance "great." It is "great," in that it is unique. It would far from acceptable from anyone else.

[@MrInterestingthings]

So true ! Some of the outsized "largesse" shocks one when first heard yet he makes it right . Horowitz is not a classicist like Perahia or Zimmerman or even Bolet who pays moreattention to da signs on da page than Horo. But the music lives and it's his honesty and real connection that make it communicate.

[@raphaelheudron879]

a lot of mistakes, but such original.. love it !

[@pvonberg]

At that age Liszt made a lot of mistakes too, according to contemporaries

[@DynastieArtistique]

Who cares, no one matches Horowitz’s dynamic range and beautiful tone. This performance is top class

[@micheleperego6160]

I would have liked to see the eyes of Chopin if some pupil of him were playing his masterwork in this "strange" way 🤣

[@hope4thesilentplanet]

Polonaise-fantasie, Op. 61, by Sergei Alexander Scriabinoff. Oh well, still love him anyway.

[@helenavondrakenstein4969]

What would Chopin think? I think he'd be very pleased

[@ZKLofiTone]

nah, too much bam bam fff

[@karolsiwek72]

He wouldn’t polonaise is a dance, so it’s meant to be performed rhytmically as a danca, listen again, and imagine people trying to fit his rhytm, it is simply scherzo alla fantasia polonaise variations by Horowitz.

[@frenchpolitics77]

Tout Horowitz qu’il fut, il est fort peut problable - d’après les nombreux témoignages écrits - que Chopin aurait apprécié un tel acharnement sur l’instrument.

[@LazlosPlane]

Is there such a thing as producing "too much sound"????

[@samuelmaso98]

8:03

[@geroelze1700]

Das meiste ist genial. In der Coda verliert er allerdings die Übersicht und trennt die Stimmen übethaupt nicht mehr voneinander! Vieles verschwimmt. Man weiß manchmal nicht, war er wieder durch sedierende Medikamente beeinträchtigt oder lag es an seinem Alter (79). Bis 75 war er noch vollkommen Herr seines technischen Rüstzeugs.

[@sk-fk7om]

Coughing during playing, discomfort😑

[@hansheng654]

Compare to todays playing. I love his "0 fk given" style😂😂 . Maybe its also a reflection of soecity change

[@ianrodriguez2661]

Beautiful piece, you could even say that it is close to the version of Martha Argerich

[@republiccooper]

At times Argerich and Horowitz approach music similarly. I first noted it with the Chopin barcarolle.

[@claudewallet3287]

Martha was an uncompromising admirer of Horowitz !

[@user-fh6gx5yb4t]

님...저한테 화난 거 있어요? ..? 아...하...하...😂

[@karolsiwek72]

Sadly, Horowitz was a one of his kind, he played Schumann, liszt, or Scriabin like no one else, but Chopin didn’t Love him, and this is a great example of this. You cannot play this piece if u don’t have Chopin in your heart because of the melodical complexities

[@MaxLima1]

If only Horowitz had had lessons with you, he could have been a better Chopin interpreter. He obviously knew nothing about the melodical complexities nor about the heart thing you mentioned

[@karolsiwek72]

I was born in Poland, the character of both Mazurkas and Polonaises are based on our traditional dances. Listen to rubistein or Paderewski, polonaise is a dance, and polonaise fantasie is still a polonaise, not a fantasie polonaise, you get the point? It’s obviously astonishing how Howorwitz performs it, sadly, it’s not what he meant be writing this piece, this is more of a horowitz’s fantasia polonaise.

[@jutingry7567]

@@karolsiwek72 there isn't really a point to be discerned from this except maybe, if Horowitz was polish you would like this more. saying "you don't have Chopin in your heart" isn't really an argument for Horwitz understanding of melodical complexities nor does it even shine half of a luminescent to your point. so i would ask you to provide specific points and timestamps as to where this performance loses chopins love.

[@danielperkins6023]

This isn't his best performance...have you heard his other thousands of chopin recordings from earlier in his career?

[@LazlosPlane]

Occasionally, one can actually hear some Chopin sneaking through every now and then if you listen carefully.

[@leonardodelyrarodrigues3752]

Am I the only one who finds Horowitz's Chopin horribly ugly? Mazurkas are beautiful, but Polonaises hurt your ears

[@claudewallet3287]

Probably about the only one yes. On occasion a bit frightening yes. Ugly never.

[@leonardodelyrarodrigues3752]

@RobertoMiguelArevalo Eu acho essa polonaise linda, mas todas as gravações do Horowitz (que é considerado um dos maiores pianistas de todos os tempos) tocando Chopin me soou horrivelmente feias e ásperas como se estivesse marretando as cordas com piscopatia, exceto pelas mazurcas, as mazurcas de Chopin do Horowitz são lindas.

[@dietmarfalke1099]

the piano is a diseaster

[@HIPguy]

Was thinking the same thing

[@francescobigshoots3050]

Non mi piace come inizia un po’ troppo forte

[@zeljkovlahovic5582]

Not from this world

[@inkognito8400]

The sound, at times, really is astonishing. But he is so lousy and his concentration is lacking. Compare that to a Richter in old age and you see the difference. Richter‘s interpretation of this work, especially the one from October 15, 1962 in Milan, is otherworldly. Even though there are some decisions Richter takes, that I deem unfitting and at times unpleasend. Especially when Richter gets carried away by intense passages, Indulging often in unecessarily strong dynamics, sacrificing the polyphony of certain phrases for dramaturgic contrast. Richter is more of a global thinker, more of an epicist, than an dramaturge. Because Richter thinks in global structures, he can be demanding in his strictness to the intention of the composer, but also over the aspect of execution, Richter wanted to play Chopin in a more improvised manner, and purpose, as a guiding tendency for convincing narrative flexions, he had an uncanny grip, yet without gravitas. Making his recordings unusually natural, at times they seem generic, at other times, when Richter reaches his full concentration, he is the most demanding pianist I have ever heard. In the Polonaise-Fantaisie, Richter reaches those heights.

[@piotrkobza2776]

Another caricature of a polonaise made by Horowitz. On a howling piano to make it worse. Boze sohrani nas

[@susanberesford6515]

This is total butchery of one of the very greatest pieces which Chopin, the very pinnacle of pianistic genius, ever wrote. There were a few moments when the old demigod of the populace at large, wasn't busy bashing his reputation to shreds, for example the section from the "piu lento" at Bar 148 he played with the right dynamic and clearly-felt pathos and there were a few other such moments, but for the most part his crashing chords were so harsh and crudely produced and scattered so far and wide (with many unwritten notes included) that the effect is grossly opposite from what Chopin's amazingly crafted and sublimely impassioned climax towards the end of the piece conveys in the hands of a great pianist of a less polar opposite nature to Chopin, such as Rubinstein, Rafal Blechacz, Evgeny Kissin, MariaJoao Pires or Garrick Ohllson to name a few.

[@LazlosPlane]

Your feelings are not shocking to anyone in the field of piano literature. It has been said for years that Horowitz goes far over the line of Romantic interpretation and playing to the point of bad taste. See my comment above!

[@Thiago-px9ev]

Horowitz was very unique in everything he touched, I dont think anyone goes for him because of his closeness to the composer's intention. This is Horowitz's style, although I do prefer listening to Rubinstein, Novaes and other pianists that dont try to surpass the composer, I respect and admire Horowitz for some beautiful findings and far-from-boring playing.

[@LazlosPlane]

@@Thiago-px9ev Quite right. Having heard the Maestro at Carnegie more than once, I can tell you that there are those who worship him and these un-Godly explosions of sound that are completely inappropriate to Chopin. However, he is the last in a line of style of playing (taken to the extreme) and his playing can be dazzling. There is nothing like it. So... one takes the good and tolerates the bad.

[@merlindavids]

Shame Mr Horowitz couldn’t learn from you haha

[@merlindavids]

I’m sure you could have taught him how to play in a more appropriate style. xD

[@dietmarfalke1099]

Piano sound horrible. I love Horowitz but this was not a good time for him

[@ciararespect4296]

Sorry this is awful I know he was old but . Smudging and his own tempo with strange rubato etc much like cziffra who was great but too much of a showman not adhering to the composers wishes

[@paradoxicallyexcellent5138]

Lol I was expecting to chalk this up to creative differences, but when he managed to completely hide the melody under a bunch of wrong overly-loud chords at the end... I had to agree. In his defense, I guess pianists at that time did not have the benefit of watching dozens of interpretations on KZbin. He probably only had a few contemporaries' interpretations to learn from. In this case, undoubtedly, he got it wrong.

[@ciararespect4296]

Yes that's true. Not saying he wasn't an amazingly gifted pianist but not the be all and end all as some people would say. I suppose he gained the reputation when ss you say videos weren't about so much ​@@paradoxicallyexcellent5138

[@duwir5959]

Not really convincing, the whole structure .... I like much more Sviatislav Richter played this Polonaise fantasie.

[@elias0420]

Horowitz was of course great great pianiat, but too old to play this piece. I think, even if there's some kind of great expression of music, it's not good performance if there're many mistakes or mistouches.

[@TJFNYC212]

I heard him play this in Boston and hated it. It is not his piece for sure. He bangs the shit out it.... there is no fantasy element at all. lot of banging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Horrible performance in my view