I was doing postgraduate studies at the Moscow conservatoire. I don¹t remember how we students got the news that Horowitz was coming to Moscow,
but it had the effect of a lightning. Everybody was talking only about the event. I remember the hand printed poster with his name in Russian! One fine day I was practising in the conservatoire building where the Rachmaninov Hall is. Somebody just said that there would be a press conference taking place in the Rachmaninov Hall by Horowitz. I phoned my brother (at that time Chargé d¹affairs at the Embassy of Malta in Moscow) to tell him about it since he would not have missed it for anything, and what¹s more, I could always get in with him. Unfortunately he was not in his office and I just left a message.
I decided to get in at all costs. One has to remember that in those soviet days, security was something one worried
about. The KGB aura was omnipresent even if I never had any problem with the « venerable » institution during my 8-year stay there. So I decided to hide and wait in the toilets in that building. I just locked myself in and waited. I do not remember how long, but quite long. The building became little by little more and more quiet. That meant that people, mostly students, but also administration, were being asked to leave the building. The security authorities were not going to leave anybody inside with all the VIPs and foreign journalists and TV people around. I started
to get worried, because I figured that at one moment the world champions in security would surely find me out in the toilet room, but now it was too late and the fear of being found out was less terrible than just walking out voluntarily and giving up. Some time after there was complete silence in the building and I thought that maybe I should walk out. Luckily I did not, for seconds later I heard heavy steps approaching and two Russian male voices were asking each other if the toilets had been checked. I thought this was it,
but by some sort of miracle, there was a slight hesitation, probably they where just peeping into the entrance to the toilet rooms, then they just switched the lights off and left!
A few moments to take hold of my nerves and I decided that if I did not walk out, I would risk missing the arrival of Horowitz. So, I decided to walk out. At the other end of the corridor, I saw a group of people who turned out to be the persons in charge of checking the visitors,
admitting them only if they had special cards or whatever. There was such an excitement and tension that nobody noticed that I had arrived from the « wrong » side of the door and I just decided to wait until I could get in, hoping my brother would appear with his diplomatic card. Time was passing fast and I decided to try to go in when a lady at the door asked me who I was. I stammered something like «
Embassy », pointing at my brother who happened to arrive at this very moment. She looked at me not noticing I was pointing at the real diplomat. She ordered me « Yes, go in! ».
How I ran into the hall! My brother later told me that he was nearly not allowed in, being told that the person from the embassy had already arrived.
Sitting in that hall, I thought I was in heaven. Imagine me a student from Malta actually in this hall where Horowitz was going to talk! Sure enough in he came with Wanda Horowitz and a whole lot of other people. One of the first questions was by an American journalist who asked Horowitz how come was he back in Russia since a short time before he was still telling everybody that he would never go back to Russia under soviet rule. There was silence in the hall; you see perestroika was still in its
foetal stages. Horowitz looked completely lost, probably not knowing how to answer. Wanda gently but firmly stopped him from talking with her arm and very distinctly and without batting an eyelid declares something like, « Mr Horowitz has achangéd his
amind! » with her Italian accent. I thought that extremely funny and it succeeded in establishment a limit on the following questions in that there was to be no more politically connected questions.
Another question concerned the Russian school of Piano. Some Soviet journalist asked Horowitz some question mentioning the fact (according to him) that Horowitz was part of the Russian school. Horowitz reacted immediately saying something like « What school? No I am of no school, my school is the Horowitz school ». He mentioned his younger colleague Richter who, he was told, was performing with the score. There was a twinkle in his eyes. This remark was not well digested by the Richter clan and I still meet people who knew Richter personally who still do not forgive Horowitz this remark.
I have to admit I do not remember other details. At the end, my brother took me by the hand and led me up on stage. Leading me up to Horowitz who was still at the table with the microphones in front of him. After he bent and said a few words to Horowitz he actually pulled me closer, knowing I would not have dared to move any closer. I was dazed and really do not remember much what I said although I remember him smiling and saying « Malta? Malta? Ah! ». The photo
at the top of the message shows this very moment. I am the one with the moppy hair and in glasses. To my right is Giuseppe, my brother.
I also wanted to get into the rehearsal performance that Horowitz gave the day before the actual concert.
What a crowd there was! People without tickets were going mad. The police could not
control them. At one moment, a huge number of students, quite angry at not having
tickets even though the public rehearsal was supposed to be reserved to students, just gate crashed into the hall and we ran up stairs with a couple of police agents running after us. Luckily, as soon as we entered the gallery and started to look for any place to sit, mostly on the stairs, Horowitz came out on stage and the police just left everybody alone, not to disturb the maestro.
I will never forget the feeling of happiness when Horowitz walked out on stage. The public just exploded and even before he started playing, there were tears in many eyes, mine included. I still have a very bad walkman recording of this rehearsal in which one hears Horowitz trying the acoustics with various pieces and improvisations and even joking when some passage he tried did not work well. For me personally this concert was one of the few really unique moments of my musical life. It probably had a deep effect that is still very present in my soul.
I have recently watched the TV documentary about this historic visit and to my surprise I could actually catch a fleeting glimpse of myself on the top stair of the Moscow Large Hall entrance behind a large crowd of mostly students greeting Horowitz arriving in the old limousine that was driving him around.
- Brian Schembri
