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Recorded Horowitz

An Index of Released & Unreleased Recordings
 Prepared and Compiled by Christian Johansson

 

 

Alphabetical Section by Composer

 

The Recording Index on this website is an attempt to catalogue all surviving recordings of the legendary Vladimir Horowitz. The index consists of two separate sections - one by composer which I have chosed to name the Alphabetical Section, and another which lists the recordings in chronological order which is called the Chronological Section. All recordings listed in one section are naturally listed in the other as well, but in order to make the sections as user-friendly as possible there are a few differences in concept between them. I have been more generous with discographical info in the Chronological Section as such would take up a lot of space in the section by composer and thus disturb the flow and readability of the page, but on the other hand the section by composer generally has more detailed info on specific recording dates and number of takes from commercial recording sessions where several takes recorded days - sometimes months - apart were used for the commercial release of a work. This is to reduce the number of notes & references to other sessions in the chronological section to a minimum.
The index as a whole aims to be as complete as possible, but even more importantly 100% accurate & reliable, and to achieve this I have used the following template when creating the index:

-  First of all I have only included recordings I am sure exist as I have a copy myself of the recording, or know someone trustworthy who does. I have not listed any recordings based on rumours alone.

-  Material from commercial recording sessions have been catalogued through the recording logs for the sessions, and through help from people with access to the actual tapes or discs in cases when the information given in the logs has been inadequate.

-  All dates and locations are given as they are known to me through my sources or through the fruits of my research. I have not made any guesses myself, and I have decided to leave assumptions to the reader.

-  Fragments of works from rehearsals, warm-ups, private sessions and similiar have been deemed irrelevant for the discography and have not been included. Notes to a few which might be of particular interest can be found in the Appendix at the end of the page.

All commercially released recordings are written in black and have a reference to the label & catalogue number of the issue in the alphabetical section. When recordings have appeared in more than one commercial issue only one catalogue number has been quoted (there are a few overlaps though as all commercial items included in the index have been listed in completion) - generally to the best, most recent, or most accessible release. All catalogue numbers refer to a CD release unless other is stated.

Material that has never appeared in any commercial release is written in grey, and have an indication in bold text to the type of the recording. There are seven kinds of commercially unreleased recordings, a description of each follows below.

Unreleased Recordings
 These are recordings which were professionally recorded by Horowitz's current record company, but which have by one reason or another not been released. The reasons for this are innumerable, but in most cases they have remained unreleased as Horowitz was dissatisfied with the recording and did not approve it for commercial release, or (especially in the early recordings) perhaps as the recording engineer was dissatisfied with the technical quality of the recording and did not approve it for release (yep, both the artist's and the engineer's approval were required before a recording could be released). Fortunately most, though not all, of these recordings are preserved in the vaults of the record company responsible for them (see the Chronological Section), and we can only hope as many of them as possible will be released in due time now when they're not controlled as tightly by Horowitz or The Horowitz Estate anymore. The best way of pushing for this is to buy Horowitz's CDs and DVDs to show that there is a public interest in Horowitz's recordings and to provide funds for further releases.

Copying and ripping commercial CDs is *NOT* to support the record companies!!

Private Recordings
Somewhere duing the winter of 1944/1945 Horowitz signed a contract with Carnegie Hall's Recording Service to record his recitals there. The recitals were recorded in completition, including encores, and pressed on LPs for Horowitz who used them to study and analyse his playing. All Horowitz's recitals in Carnegie Hall except one were recorded between March 1945 and March 1951 when RCA took over instead. These are nowadays known as the "Yale Recitals" as Horowitz donated them to Yale University during the 1980s where they are still stored. All unique repertoire these concerts contain except Balakirev's Islamey, Liszt's 2nd Legend, and two Preludes by Kabalevsky was released by RCA in the 1990s on two CDs called "The Private Collection", but the complete concerts remain unreleased and are referred to as Private Recordings in this index.

Radio Broadcasts or TV Broadcasts
These are recordings which have been recorded by radio and TV stations and are now preserved in their archives and/or on VHS or audio cassette tapes recorded from the broadcast by amateurs.

Amateur Acetates
 From the 1930s and onwards it was actually possible to make private home recordings on a machine which could record a few minutes of sound on discs called acetates. These machines were very rare, did not produce recordings of any greater quality, and probably cost a fortune in their day, but a young lady in Chicago on very good terms with Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, Kreisler, Cherkassky, Toscanini and a whole horde of other artists had access to one and used to recorded them in small mini-recitals for a set of a invited friends in her living room which she liked to arrange. So far, this lady's acetates are the only known ones with Horowitz.

Pirate Recordings
A pirate recording is a recording made by some innocent looking guy in the audience armed with a microphone, secretly and illegally recording the performance. To the best of my knowledge the first recordings of this kind started to appear in the New York area during the spring of 1965 (the first known pirate with Horowitz was recorded in New Haven on November 13 1966), and then increased in number up to the early 1970s when tape recorders had become so small and so cheap that just about anyone could afford the equipment needed to tape a concert without any greater risk of being discovered. There are actually also a few video pirate recordings from the 1980s, made by someone who has managed to smuggle in a videocamera in the hall and have been brave enough to film from his seat, probably with a Bible in his free hand praying that no one will look his way.
    Pirate Recordings vary from case to case in soundquality, from "quite good" all the way down to "only barely listenable" depending on which type of microphone and taperecorder that was used, the medium the recording was preserved on (always open reel tapes or cassettes in Horowitz's case, but of variable qualities & brands), where the microphone was placed during the recording, and how far from the stage the pirate was sitting. And of course also how many generations away from the mastertape the copy one has is as all of these have been passed around in analogue formats before CD burners were available & affordable to the average person.
    A few pirate recordings have been released on CD by Music & Arts and Living Stage for instance, but most of them remain unavailable and only exist in private collections of tape collectors and fervent Horowitz enthusiasts.

Bootlegs
A bootleg is defined here as a professional recording that was made without permission from or even knowledge of Horowitz, his agent/manager, or his record company. Well, a "professional pirate recording" then so to say, though not recorded from a seat in the audience of course.

Press Tapes
During Horowitz's press conferences during the 1970s & 1980s journalists often brought a tape recorder and recorded the conference to save them from writing it down or making notes. Some of these tapes have survived and have been passed on to Horowitz enthusiasts.

 

Items with a [+] marking have been added or corrected in the latest update.

Any additions, corrections or comments to this page would be most appreciated.  Please E-mail to: Christian Johansson


Last Updated on November 10, 2003

 

Anonymous

        God Save the Queen 

        

 

Bach, Johann Sebastian

Chorale Prelude: Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesus Christ, BWV 639 (Arr. Busoni)

Choral Prelude: Nun freut euch, lieben Christen, BWV 734 (Arr. Busoni)

Choral Prelude: Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 (Arr. Busoni)

Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV 532 (Arr. Busoni)

Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C major, BWV 564 (Arr. Busoni)

Toccata & Fugue in C minor, BWV 911

 

Balakirev, Mili

        Islamey - Oriental Fantasy (Edited by Horowitz)

 

 

Barber, Samuel

        Excursions, Op.20 (Nos. 1, 2 & 4 only)

        Sonata in E-flat minor, Op.26

 

 

Beethoven, Ludwig van

        Piano Concerto No.5 in E-flat major, Op.73 (Emperor)

        Sonata in A major, Op.2 No.2 (first movement only)

        Sonata in D major, Op.10 No.3

        Sonata in C minor, Op.13 (Pathétique)

        Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op.27 No.2 (Moonlight)

Sonata in E-flat major, Op.31 No.3

Sonata in C major, Op.53 (Waldstein)

        Sonata in F minor, Op.57 (Appassionata)

        Sonata in A major, Op.101

32 Variations in C minor (WoO 80)

 

 

Brahms, Johannes

        Intermezzo in B-flat minor, Op.117 No.2

        Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.15

        Piano Concerto No.2 in B-flat major, Op.83

        Rhapsody in E-flat major, Op.119 No.4

        Variations on a theme by Paganini, Op.35 (Edited by Horowitz)

        Violin Sonata No.3 in D minor, Op.108

        Waltz in A-flat major, Op.39 No.15

 

Chopin, Frédéric

        Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op.22

        Ballade No.1 in G minor, Op.23

        Ballade No.3 in A-flat major, Op.47

        Ballade No.4 in F minor, Op.52

        Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Op.60

        Etude in E major, Op.10 No.3

        Etude in C-sharp minor, Op.10 No.4

        Etude in G-flat major, Op.10 No.5 (Black Key)

        Etude in E-flat minor, Op.10 No.6

        Etude in F major, Op.10 No.8