Horowitz's playing skills are brilliant and unrestrained, his music tends to be more profound and perfect, and his means of expression are richer. Some music critics believe that his piano timbre
is like the seven basic colors, which can be adjusted into various tones to express various thoughts and feelings. In addition, his performance can fully express the content of the music without blindly respecting the original work. The most valuable thing is that he is very much like a skilled editor, able to correct the "typos, missing words" and other errors made by the music author to make the work perfect. His repertoire is quite extensive, and he is particularly good at playing works by Chopin, Scarlatti, Schumann, Liszt, Scriabin and other famous artists.
Horowitz's music performance is extremely distinctive. His music is so unique that anyone who has listened to his performance can easily distinguish his music from many other artists. It is difficult for people who have never appreciated the charm of his music to guess based on experience. I can only tell in detail what I heard about his distinctive characteristics.
Horowitz is the last giant of classical romantic piano. Many people equate "romantic" with "feminine". However, in front of Horowitz, they realized how taken-for-granted this mistake in understanding was. His performance will make you suddenly understand: it turns out that the essence of romance is "passion". Horowitz's passion was a natural fit for his music. This is very different from the excitement expressed by many piano players with exaggerated body movements. Especially in the master's later years, the range of movement during playing has become very small. You must not think that this is the slowness of an old man. At this time, Horowitz has entered a state where lifting weights is as light as light, and lifting light as heavy as heavy is. Don’t forget that when he was young, he often broke the strings during performances, and the tuner was often faced with a Steinway piano that almost fell apart after he played it.
Horowitz's piano sound is smart and clear, but at the same time, he has a left hand that earned him the title of "Thor". Horowitz emphasized the importance of his left hand throughout his life. Not only does he not think that the left hand is an accessory in performance, he even calls the left hand the conductor in piano performance. In terms of timbre, the unique keystrokes of his left hand on the bass make the music he plays rich and impactful, with strong acoustics.
Horowitz has a pair of soft hands. He can even completely bend and retract his little finger while the other four fingers are typing. If you watch his performance in slow motion, the graceful movement of the ten fingers will remind you of the fluttering wings of a bird. These gifted hands and steel-like strong elbows and wrists perfectly combine softness and strength, tranquility and intensity in music.
Horowitz used a completely personalized parallel key-touching hand pattern to play the piano. Unlike the piano textbook that requires the palms to be empty and the fingertips to touch the keys, he flattened his palms On the keyboard, use the pads of each finger to touch the keys. Each note is not struck, but almost pressed with your fingers. The unique technique can produce an unusually soft tone. (Similarly, both Arrau and Gould's playing hands are relatively flat.) In order to pursue changes in timbre, Horowitz is also very particular about the parts of his fingers that touch the keys. The closer you touch the key to the root of the key, the lighter the sound and the softer the tone; the closer you touch the end of the key, the louder the sound and the stronger the bounce of the tone. Sometimes, while playing the sustain, his fingers would slide from one end of the key to the other in pursuit of subtle changes in the tone of the sustain. Playing at different key positions, combined with the changes in finger strength and speed during playing, makes Horowitz's piano timbre as rich and varied as a rainbow, and full of layers. Horowitz's use of timbre to express music is even richer. Some music critics believe that he is like a painter who uses seven colors to create different tones to express various musical emotions. But what brought Horowitz's sound to perfection was his exquisite use of the piano pedal. In terms of his emphasis on and deep understanding of the piano pedal, Horowitz is definitely an unparalleled master among the pianists of the 20th century. The only scholarly work he produced during his lifetime was on the use of piano pedals. The master himself also said: As a pianist, his achievements are not in his hands, but in his feet, which are often ignored.
Horowitz's playing skills are brilliant and free. He plays many difficult works with ease and ease, such as "Rachmanilov's Third Piano Concerto" His performance of very difficult works has the ease and ease of climbing a dangerous mountain as if walking on a smooth river. Let the listener feel that the music is moving and not worry about anything else.
Horowitz has jaw-dropping playing skills. He can be said to be the most perfect piano master in the history of recording. For him, there seems to be no "technical difficulty" in piano playing. If you have seen the master perform "Variations on a Theme of Carmen" at Carnegie Hall in 1968, you will be stunned by his electric and magical performance on the keyboard. This work ("VARIATIONS ON A THEME FROM BIIET’S CARMEN") is a very difficult and virtuoso work created by the master for himself. When Horowitz played this work, he had already transformed piano playing into a highly intense competitive sport: one after another long-span jumping keystrokes, dense arpeggios like a shower, the left and right hands chasing each other. confrontation. At this time, the master has completely become a magician on the keyboard, giving the audience one surprise after another. This variation is so difficult that few pianists are willing to touch it. Only many years later, the talented piano boy ACADI VOLODOS tried to play it on his piano album of the same name.
But Horowitz was more than just a technically superb pianist. In that case, Horowitz would no longer be Horowitz. He believes that performers should interpret works with heartfelt emotions. The master said: "A performer should be a re-creator of the work. (A perfect performer) should have three conditions: a well-trained and imaginative brain, a free and generous heart and free control of the instrument. Ability. Not many musicians can possess the above three qualities in harmony. This is a high artistic level and a goal that I have strived for throughout my life."
In 1936, Horowitz. Citing poor health as an excuse, he left the stage for the first time and announced his retirement. The master was only 32 years old. In his quiet life of retirement, he focused on his thinking and exploration of music. Comeback after three years. Horowitz has transformed from a fiery technical player into an introspective mature artist. In the following years, for the same purpose, the master retired twice in 1953 and 1970, with the longest retreat lasting 12 years. Each retreat gave Horowitz a qualitative breakthrough in music. It is precisely with this kind of courage that is indifferent to fame and fortune and the unremitting pursuit of music that the master finally reaches perfection.
As a pianist, Horowitz is first of all a profound musician. He has publicly declared that his greatest ambition is to become a composer. Although apart from the "Variations on a Theme of Carmen" mentioned above, few of the master's own works have been published. However, as the successor of Anton Rubinstein and the adopted son-in-law of the great conductor Toscanini, Horowitz has a comprehensive musical quality that is unmatched by his peers. Horowitz has his own unique understanding of many musical works, and his performance can fully demonstrate the charm of the works without blindly adhering to the original works. What is commendable is that he is like a clever editor who can keenly discover the flaws in the work and correct them to make the work perfect. Horowitz's performance of Scarlatti's sonata has a transcendent quality that escapes the world. Without Horowitz's performance, these moving works would have been sleeping on the music stand for who knows how long. He played Clementi's works in one go, with dramatic musical expressions. The piano playing Chopin's works has a slender and beautiful tone, which fully reflects Chopin's quiet and contemplative poet temperament.
Schumann's "KINDERSZEN OP.15" played by Horowitz in his later years is a very popular performance version. He plays these simple melodies based on broken chords with a strong nostalgic flavor. This nostalgic color is exactly an old man's recollection of the good times of his childhood. In the process of listening, we can't help but get lost in the music and let our thoughts soar outside time and space. When the master performed this work in Vienna in May 1987, the piano's pianissimo handling was truly incredible and beautiful.
In comparison with other pianists, we can more and more appreciate Horowitz's creative reproduction of the spiritual essence of the work during his performance.
Horowitz fully demonstrated his control over the inner rhythm of the music when playing Mozart's "Turkish March" (SONATA NO.11, K331. 3RD MOVEMENT). The version he played at Carnegie Hall in 1966 was four minutes and seven seconds long, more than one-third longer than Brendel's version of the piece, but it was different from Brendel's rushing, marching style. Compared with his playing, Horowitz played calmly, smoothly and compactly, and his lively beating rhythm was elegance of French court dance music.
Horowitz's music is a personal music. He has a romantic passion in his nature. He is always able to grab what best suits his temperament in a work and carry it forward. And it is often the flashing light of this part that makes his audience mesmerized. Compared with Horowitz's flamboyant playing, Richter's so-called precise and hard playing has become so rigid and rigid. When Horowitz plays, he often has some unexpected strokes of genius. Audiences love these beautiful creations, but he is often not understood by music critics. Among the classical music masters of the 20th century, he may be the most criticized pianist. His numerous and wonderful performances were not recognized by conservative classical music experts. However, Horowitz's interpretations of two musical works are undisputed classics: Rachmanilov's Third Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto.
Rachmanilov’s Third Piano Concerto (Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30) is one of the greatest piano works in the history of music. Rachmanilov's Third Piano Concerto under the direction of Horowitz exudes the magnificence of thousands of miles of glaciers and vast forests, as well as the beauty of winding streams and blooming flowers. The sound of the piano is full of his love for his hometown, and also filled with the sadness of leaving the country and being unable to return. Not long after the beginning of the first movement, the few bars that the piano introduced calmly were clearly the master's low murmur: "Ah, this is my motherland."
The same cultural background and exile experience as the composer , which gave Horowitz an understanding of this work that is difficult for others to achieve; with his superb playing ability, he was able to play this work with ease, which is daunting for most performers, especially the master's grasp of rhythm, which made the whole work calm and easy. Expanded, extremely moving. The author Rachmaninoff, who is also a great pianist, after listening to his performance, sincerely praised Horowitz's Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto as the most perfect.
Every time I listen to Horowitz’s performance of this work, I can’t help but sigh: Only in such a vast country with diverse scenery can it be possible to give birth to this kind of music that is sometimes heavy and sometimes light; Sometimes majestic, sometimes meaningful; sometimes exciting, sometimes soothing and moving music. In particular, the majestic and majestic spirit of the music is something that other musicians born in Europe cannot possess. Even the most powerful Beethoven, his momentum is just a personal struggle against fate. The majestic spirit displayed by Horowitz when he played Rachmanilov's Third Piano Concerto is a true reflection of the heritage of a huge country like Russia.
Horowitz performed this work publicly many times throughout his life, and successively recorded records with conductors such as ALBERT COATES, Reiner, and Ormandy. The most famous among them is the live recording of the New York Symphony Orchestra performed by the master and Ormandy at Carnegie Hall. Even this recording has been released in multiple versions by record companies. The one with the best sound effect is this HP version of the CD record.
Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23" is Horowitz's famous work. His astonishing performance of this piece earned him great fame in the world music scene in his 20s. Horowitz's performance is majestic, brilliant, highly infectious and shocking. This track allows the maestro to fully demonstrate his powerful keystrokes. During his performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, he broke the strings several times. Horowitz performed this piece for the first time in the United States in 1928. The amazing sound he played on the keyboard made the conductor of the band feel unbelievable and repeatedly asked to see his palm to see if it had magical powers. .
I have listened to multiple recordings of pianists playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Each performance has its own characteristics: Argerich’s lyricism, Richter’s precision, and recklessness. Binstein's agility, Cliburn's tone exquisite. But no one can play this concerto with the same grandeur and excitement as Horowitz. Horowitz's high-spirited and fast-moving performance has a powerful momentum that sweeps over everything, and it sounds very enjoyable.
Unfortunately, the master rarely played this work after his middle age, and the recording of him playing Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto was relatively early. The more famous ones include the recording in the studio in 1941 and the live recording at Carnegie Hall in 1943. Both times Horowitz performed with the National Broadcasting Corporation Symphony Orchestra (NBC Orchestra) under the baton of his father-in-law Toscanini. Although it is a monophonic recording, we can still hear the master's thrilling performance in the first movement overture, the fresh and quiet timbre expression in the second movement of the complex trilogy, and the sonata rondo form. The third movement is filled with festive joy. The orchestra conducted by Toscanini also showed great enthusiasm, confronting and complementing the ups and downs of the piano played by Horowitz.
Special mention should be made of Chopin's "Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66" played by the master. A small tinkling fast note at the beginning of the music is like the carefree laughter of a young boy; the beautiful theme part in the middle appears repeatedly in the form of variations, where the master controls the tone wonderfully, seeming to recall the sweet youth. Astringent love; then the melody at the beginning sounded again, but the initial carefreeness was no longer there. An uneasy emotion was brewing and accumulating. This restless power finally sounded like a string of beads falling on a jade plate. The note reaches its peak, when the master's famous left-hand bass sounds steadily, ending the whole song with a deep sound like morning bells and evening drums.
Every time I listen to this piece of music played by Horowitz, it is like listening to the master recount his entire life. Coincidentally: the maestro played this Fantasia Impromptu in his last recording. It seemed that he felt something secretly.
In 1989, Horowitz passed away peacefully at his home in New York with his unprecedented musical talent. The last breath of classical romantic music has permanently dissipated in reality. From that moment on, the golden age of the piano came to an end.