A Stunning Recital

The original release of Horowitz' 1981 recital at the Metropolitan Opera House was one of the first CDs I bought when I got my first player in 1986. Most of Horowitz' RCA recordings up to this point had sounded as if the pianist was overwhelming the capacity of the recording equipment.  This was Horowitz' first digital recording, and the release of this album set the music world on its ear.  RCA has remastered the recording using the latest technology and for me the results are varied: The dynamic range is dramatically increased, but the hall ambiance seems to have been almost eliminated.

Whatever one's opinion of the sound, the recording captures Horowitz in his autumnal prime in works he was obviously comfortable with. Horowitz almost single handedly resurrected Scarlatti, and his approach to these elusive works consistently illuminates. He almost never embellished the text, but provides more than enough variety with an endless palette of tone colors.

Horowitz seemed more at home in Chopin's Ballade in F-minor than he did in the First Ballade. The phrasing, dynamics, and dramatic build up are just so "right" here, that one can scarcely imagine a better performance--even with the occasional minor slip of finger.

Liszt's Ballade is more bombastic than anything else. Horowitz fills the work with such epic "mad-scientist" fury, one can actually take the work seriously, at least until the track ends.

The Chopin Waltz combines both--very different--editions of Chopin's text, with perhaps a dash of Horowitz' melancholy. The Rachmaninoff Prelude has a swinging beat that one seldom hears from this piece. The central section is as sexily voiced as a siren's song. The applause at the end is most welcome and entirely deserved.