Volume VII: Early Romantics

The Complete Masterworks Recordings

Sony Classical: S2K 53468

CD 1

Frederic Chopin
1. Mazurka in A minor, Op.17 No.4
2. Etude in G-flat major, Op.10 No.5
3. Introduction & Rondo, Op.16
4. Waltz in A minor, Op.34 No.2
5. Polonaise in A-flat major, Op.53
6. Mazurka in F-sharp minor, Op.59 No.3
7. Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op.50 No.3
8. Mazurka in D-flat major, Op.30 No.3
9. Mazurka in E minor, Op.41 No.2
10. Mazurka in D major, Op.33 No.2
11. Etude in C-sharp minor, Op.10 No.4
12. Etude in E major, Op.10 No.3
13. Etude in C minor, Op.10 No.12 (Revolutionary Etude)
14. Prelude in B minor, Op.28 No.6

CD 2

Frederic Chopin
1. Polonaise in A major, Op.40 No.1
2. Prelude in D-flat major, Op.28 No.15 (Raindrop Prelude)
3. Etude in E-flat minor, Op.10 No.6
4. Nouvelle Etude No.2 in A-flat major
5. Mazurka in F minor, Op.7 No.3
6. Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op.64 No.2

Robert Schumann
7. Variations on a theme by Clara Wieck, Op.14 (3rd mvt from Sonata No.3)
8-15. Kreisleriana, Op.16

Early Romantics

Volume Seven of Sony's Horowitz reissue contains very convincing performances of Chopin and Schumann, Romantic composers whose music was sympathetic to the pianist's interpretive style.

It was not uncommon for Horowitz to bring to light a rarely played work by a well known composer, which is the case with Chopin's Introduction & Rondo in E-flat. This early composition (probably written for Chopin's most advanced pupils) abounds with glittery passagework and technical configurations similar to his Concertos (which Horowitz never recorded). Under Horowitz's hands, the work exceeds the boundaries of mere salon piece and emerges as a virtuoso tour de force.

Horowitz (who had a Polish grandmother and was fond of pointing out that he was "half as much a Pole as Chopin") considered the Mazurkas to be Chopin's greatest works, and often stated that there was more music in the shortest Chopin Mazurka than in the longest Mahler Symphony. The pianist treated the Mazurkas less as dance pieces than as "dance-fantasies" and his playing of the works was freer than the more straightforward Rubinstein. Highlights of this set include a seductive F-sharp Minor, Op. 59 No. 3.

Horowitz made several recordings of the ever popular A-flat Polonaise, and this one adheres most closely to Chopin's text. The introduction is very sparsely pedalled (as if Horowitz were saying "Look! I can play the tricky introduction without using the pedal to cover up insufficient fingerwork. Take THAT, Rubinstein!"). The remainder of the piece goes with gusto and flair (too fast to be a Maestoso), but he somehow misses the grandeur which Rubinstein brought to the piece--and which Horowitz himself would attain in his last years. The A-major Polonaise is also taken at a fast clip, but this somehow seems more appropriate to this work, and one is reminded of Chopin's remark that if he were able to play the piece the way he meant it to be played, the piano would lay in ruins afterward.

If anyone thought Horowitz, then approaching 70, had lost any of his fire, their worries were quickly dispelled with the Etudes included here. The C-sharp Minor goes at a rapid clip, but unlike many pianists, there is no loss of clarity. The famous Revolutionary Etude is given a more outwardly virtuosic performance then the pianist's 1963 recording, yet somehow the piece has less impact here.

The ubiquitous C-sharp Minor Waltz is from the Boston concert of April 7, 1968. Three days previously, the Reverend Martin Luther King had been murdered in Memphis. At the beginning of this concert, Horowitz came onstage with an African-American minister, and played Chopin's Funeral March in memory of Dr. King.

Horowitz learned Shumann's Kreisleriana in the 1930s, but did not play it in public until 1968. Several attempts to record the work in concert were not successful, and Horowitz came to the conclusion that he needed the peace and quiet of a recording studio to achieve the concentration for a performance suitable for posterity. Horowitz recorded the work at one inspired session on December 1, 1969, and this may well be the most successful Kreisleriana ever recorded. Ironically, Horowitz, who often had trouble holding together a Beethoven Sonata, makes this structurally splintered work emerge as one piece. This is one Kriesleriana which is never rambling or boring. There is virtuosity here, but never for its own sake, and there is poetry in plenty. This stands alongside the 1932 Liszt Sonata and 1951 Rachmaninoff Third Concerto as one of Horowitz's greatest recordings. However, it should be pointed out that this reissue of Kriesleriana uses a few alternate takes, which are markedly different from the original LP and an earlier CD issue (MK42409). Although the performance is basically similar, there are several differences in detail.

Schumann's Variations on a Theme by Clara Wieck, originally included as a filler for the Kriesleriana record, is given a straightforward reading here. It a lovely little work, but it is even more beautiful in its original context: as the third movement from the composer's Sonata in F Minor, another rarely played work Horowitz would bring to light in 1975.

The sound is more than acceptable here, and especially fine in the Schumann works.

© Hank Drake

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