Vladimir Horowitz's Steinway Available For All To Play

For six decades, classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz performed for concert audiences around the world. Horowitz died in 1989, but the Steinway grand piano that accompanied him on tour...is still touring North America.
Horowitz's concert grand Steinway piano arrived Wednesday at the Schmitt Music Company in Overland Park, Kan. And through July 11, visitors will have a chance to play the instrument.

[@dandelion1627]

I cannot believe this is THE Horowitz's piano when these people were playing it in this video. This is the solid proof that it was not the piano, it was Horowitz who made it sounded like Horowitz's piano.

[@josephf151]

to be fair after repairs, it has lost some of its original properties. but yes, to get it to really sound like it used to, you would need another person like Horowitz.

[@zuhairbakdoud1360]

“Who made it soundED” ? How about English grammar...

[@borisjelzin9162]

@@zuhairbakdoud1360 In germany we say , "Du hast einen Fehler gefunden und kannst ihn behalten" .

[@user-sw5pw3cs4w]

@@zuhairbakdoud1360 It is sound not sounded, your grammar is the one that's wrong lol

[@zuhairbakdoud1360]

@@user-sw5pw3cs4w Sir, l don’t know about what you are talking. I would appreciate it if you would clarity. Thank you. Z.B.

[@shilloshillos]

I played Horowitz's Steinway when it came to Ohio University in Athens Ohio in the 90s.

[@YourOwnAdventure]

thats awesome! What did you play?

[@shilloshillos]

Whatever was in my repertoire back then, meaning what i was studying plus improvised on it. I think however that I wasnt mature enough to appreciate fully the instrument.

[@johnschlesinger2009]

Franz Mohr looked after Horowitz's pianos after Bill Hupfer retired. In Mohr's book, he tells us that Horowitz used several Steinways, not only the one in his New York house, which was in fact a gift to the Master from Steinway.

[@johnparkway]

I played that piano when it was on tour in Dallas. It pretty much plays itself. All you have to do is be present. It's a great instrument. BUT, it takes a great pianist to make music. :).

[@gabrielvanwersch1204]

I played Skrjabin and Rachmaninoff on this instrument when it was in Holland in ( I believe ) 1993 at van Hoorn Piano's at Son (Eindhoven) There was no one around in the small concert - hall. After only sitting and watching the instrument for a while I touched it, and this was really breathtaking. That sound and touch - like a feather. I read the books of Mr Franz Mohr CD Dept. Steinway U.S. about the details of the technical demands and then I understood what he meant. The most remarkable fact was that I touched an instrument with a tremendous history in music and musical history. The pictures we made at that occasion are still haning at my piano-classroom. It was a great event to me - just tasting the charisma of the late Horowitz - he died just a few years before.!!

[@TheLeaderCinema]

My wife, Dr. Alla Love (St. Petersburg Conservatory) performed on this glorious piano while it was touring in Vancouver Canada. Unfortunately, the action is not the same as the great Maestro performed on. The Horowitz action was extraordinarily unique. It had a relatively light touch with fast recovery. Special whippens and other secret sauce made it so special for the Horowitz touch. So...while the touch is different....so is the sound of course. I am a recording engineer, ex BBC London. It has a superb sound...but still different from anything I hear on recordings regardless of the space it is in or the microphones. Nonetheless, to at least be able to touch the case and the harp and to know the millions of miles this instrument has traveled along with the billions of notes and hammer strikes this music maker has created, this piano is still worthy of recognition. Bravo! Regards, Michael K. Leader

[@pghagen]

In the early nineties Wanda Horowitz sent this piano around the world; so it landed in pianostore Ypma in Amsterdam (Netherlands) and me and a friend had a chance to play it. I played Copin's étude op.25 nr. 1. The touch was surprisingly light. (I believe 44 grams) and the sound was amazing. It was than I understood how Horowitz could produce his fff's and ppp's

[@DJStefandeJong]

+pghagen yeah his piano was prepared to be very light in response indeed :)

[@zuhairbakdoud1360]

Horowitz had his piano technician adjust his piano to have a light touch and adjust the sound too. That’s all. Once l wanted to to hire a piano technician to do the same with my piano but it would have cost a very great deal of money because he would have had to fly to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where l live.

[@pghagen]

@@zuhairbakdoud1360 My Zeiter & Winkelmann grand did have a heavy touch; So about 10 years ago I contacted a piano technician who adjusted the touch of the keys and I am very happy with it. The cost where about € 900,= which was reasonable concerning the fact that this was a time consuming operation as he had to take out the keysection to bring it to his workshop.

[@pianoredux7516]

I played this piano at the now defunct Steinway Piano Gallery in Westport Connecticut about 10 years ago. The Mohrs freely admitted that they reversed the special adjustments to its regulation and voicing that Horowitz had used, before Steinway sent it out on tour. It had only some similarity to the way it sounded when Horowitz was alive and playing it. It was a good promotional gimmick to send it across the country, but the restoration of the factory default settings for the action and the hammer felts made it a generic Steinway D rather than a signature Horowitz vehicle.

[@pghagen]

When Horowitz passed away, his widow Wanda sent the piano around de world, and so it arrived in Amsterdam / the Netherlands in the early ninetees, and i got the opportunity to play on it. I played Chopin's study Op. 25 nbr. 1 and was amazed about the light touch of the keys. But indeed it was only Horowitz who could bring out the colors and the enormous sound from this piano. He was a genius on the piano.

[@jfgahbro]

One of my old piano teachers who went to Juilliard in the 1950's played on Horowitz's piano. It was after one of Horowitz's recitals. During the after party, my teacher & his pianist friends were playing on it. While that was going on, Horowitz was in the other room and shouted out shamelessly in his thick accent, "STOP PLAYING MY PIANO!!!" True story.

[@labienus9968]

I don't understand "shamelessly" ?since he learned English later inlife after several other languages

[@xXD7o0omeXx]

"I'm not a classical music person" as she proceeds to play Horowitz's piano. Nothing is more disrespectful than this

[@xXD7o0omeXx]

nice glasses ya'nerd

[@zuhairbakdoud1360]

Write English, not ...

[@kraftpr]

I had the privilege to play Horowitz's piano while it was on display at the former Clinton's Pianos in Hartford, CT. They were holding it until Yale could take it. Horowitz's widow, Wanda, left it to them. I played a Chopin Prelude on it. A very light, responsive action and gorgeous sound.

[@nickthegreek142857]

No one should ever be allowed to touch his piano again.....

[@5893gcapp]

I agree. It almost seems disrespectful.

[@theunscclan1]

5893gcapp Only his ancestors, and/or a pianist that can play at his level should be allowed to play his piano...

[@gjeacocke]

no man is an idol they are all men with flaws. it is but an instrument.

[@YourOwnAdventure]

5893gcapp I'm sure Horowitz would disagree. There should be no reason to waste the music... it is to share.

[@canefan17]

5893gcapp That's dumb. Why are many pianists so pretentious and snobby? lol It's a fvckin piano. I'd let kids play it too.

[@skisunfb]

The action was taken out and is on display at Steinway in NYC. There's no way it can sound the same as when Horowitz played it as the shape of the hammers and overall feel was completely different to any other Steinway.

[@jaegerlecoultre1]

I was fortunate to play it more than twenty years ago while it had Horowitz action in it. It was lowered (greater distance between the key and fall board) and much lighter. It required a good deal of getting used to. An incredible experience.

[@skisunfb]

@@jaegerlecoultre1 Very cool - thanks for sharing! IMO it was a very Euro sounding piano. It had certain nasality in the mid and upper range, perhaps similar to some Bösendorfers, along with thundering bass notes. The dynamic range was stunning and he knew how to produce the most astonishing colors... I was at the Vienna Recital in 1987 - truly unforgettable.

[@AlxM88]

I was granted the opportunity to record on this piano in 1998 in Charlotte NC...found an autograph on it...when depressing the lowest B, you will find the signature of Franz Mohr on the inside of the lowest A...I was allowed 45 minutes before buisness hours to record....I'll never forget it...314503 knows what your thinking, very responsive and everything I ever wanted a piano to be.

[@BrianCarreraShaw]

My Heroic Polonaise is heavily based off his style and motivated met to play despite all the rough roads i've gone throught, It is in my bucket list to play such piece on his piano one day!

[@789armstrong]

Does anyone know about what adjustments were made to the 'quiet' pedal?

[@codaalive5076]

First they botched it, then send "on tour" to private shops where owners seem to choose who can play it. Horowitz would probably want it in museum played by chosen musicians.

[@ericdreizen1463]

His "doctored" Steinway, built in the 1920s, was brown, not black. It had scratches & dings on it. I saw it when he played the Ambassador Auditorium in 1983. I wonder what ever happened to that piano?

[@jammanW]

I'm glad people get to play his piano...but do Horowitz justice.

[@oysteinsoreide4323]

she was the right person, because she was a fan of the previous owner. it comes to feeling for that person. if only virtuosos can play on it the piano will remain silent which would definitely be a shame.

[@medusello]

Please....not for all..

[@GianfrancoCavallaro]

0:08 > ...color Horowitz? ...what does it mean?

[@syncaudio2758]

i think Horowitz wouldn't be happy seeing people playing his "private piano"

[@davidwhyberd7612]

Oscar Peterson's Bosendorfer also goes on tour. It belongs to his family, but it must be exciting for a professional jazz pianist to play it. Vladimir Horowitz, which is pronounced with a v and not w, played Tchaikovsky's piano after Mikhail Pletnev played it. It was in Tchaikovsky's house.

[@labienus9968]

And withoout an H but a G if you want to be proper

[@sargaputra]

Great!

[@onethousandtwonortheast8848]

The Steinway dealer made this video as a sales pitch.

[@OE1FEU]

There may be some leftovers from the original Horowitz piano, maybe the lid and the frame, but that about was it. After his death his touring piano for the last recitals he gave between 1985 and 1987 in Europe was completely rebuilt in Hamburg and both in terms of sound and in terms of the action it is not even close to what the real deal played and sounded like.

[@thomaslau9631]

Made in Hambury or New York?

[@PaulJones-oj4kr]

God, the peasants talking and then playing the piano of the greatest pianist ever, is just such an affront.

[@danieldugan253]

Why isn't a trained Classical Pianist like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Michael Tilson Thomas, or even my teacher, Natasha Timashpolsky playing on this piano? Instead you bring in these clowns who can't even play "Misty" correctly.Show some respect to Mr. Horowitz!

[@oysteinsoreide4323]

why that hate?

[@Aaron-yh1vf]

I was going to say at was that really Misty? lmao didn't sound too hot

[@onethousandtwonortheast8848]

Micheal Tilson Thomas studied with Horowitz. I met him at a New World Symphony rehearsal. A very obnoxious person if you weren’t someone special with notoriety. I guess he has breathed rarified air and has a right to an extent to be this way. 🤷‍♂️ His homosexuality is strong and it made me wonder why VH stayed close to Byron Janis for decades. Janis was a part of the Horowitz household for decades but he is hetero.

[@Mrphilharmonic]

The 'W' in Horowitz's name is pronounced like a 'V', no a 'W'! Why is that woman playing the wrong chords to "Misty"? C'mon people, detail, detail.

[@Sman1723]

+Mrphilharmonic Oh My God! I actually got to play this piano at my Steinway dealer right before the movers came to bring it somewhere else. And the tune I played was misty. With correct chords lol

[@zuhairbakdoud1360]

The letter W is pronounced as a V and the letter V in German is pronounced as an F (Volkswagen is pronounced FolksVagen).

[@josephf151]

To those suggesting No one should be allowed to play this piano, or that only people related to Horowitz should be able to play this piano... Sorry, that seems like the worst thing you could do to a piano. I agree people/kids who might pose a risk to it, have no right to play it, but pianos, and any instrument are built to be played. Look at Stradivarius violins, what a loss we would face if it were decided that all of them should be in display cases instead of some still providing wonderful music. If that piano sat behind glass, that would be a tragedy, it might as well go to the dump for all it would be doing. Also, it sadly seems that this piano has lost a lot of what made it so unique (lightness of the hammers, some of its tone), following repairs and whatnot, so it really is more of a normal piano with a great history, so then there is really no reason why people who know what they are doing should not be allowed to play it.

[@wilfriedmarkusbretscher6151]

Joseph Florentine........ thank you so much for your display of respect. - A pianist, if anyone, chosen by the Genius himself, has the right to touch the instrument, no one else.........

[@clintclint7673]

I like chocolate

[@FISTRIG]

NO MAN IS A HERO TO HIS OWN DWARF !

[@zuhairbakdoud1360]

What does this mean ? (No man is a hero to his own dwarf! Thanks!

[@cameronferguson1211]

piano man 71213. Banging at the end?? that was Prokofiev s war sonata

[@Pianoman71213]

I didn't care for the banging at the end. I would like to hear either Tchaikovsky's First in B Flat Minor, or Rhapsody on a theme by Paginni played on this piano.

[@ronromano4796]

Sitting in my living room now for no one to play

[@Alix777.]

I wouldn't touch it. Only Perahia had the chance to play it when Horowitz was alive.

[@onethousandtwonortheast8848]

What a beast he is, too!!!

[@jonescrusher1]

Maybe Freddie Mercury's Concert B would be the only other Steinway to rival its legend...

[@maxrey4055]

thumb down. more talk than play

[@MrNikodemus2]

why would they let anyone play it, especially inferior pianists, really Horowitz would not approve of that. very crass to let anyone sit down and play his piano.