For listeners who treasured their RCA and Columbia recordings of the legendary
Vladimir Horowitz, the titan's 1985 return to the studio for Deutsche Grammophon after years in retirement promised to be the event of the decade because of the hoped for return of
Horowitz's patented stupendous technique and his trademark sonorous tone. In the event, what those listeners got was precious little of the former and a whole lot of the latter. While it would be easy to say that
Horowitz technique was a shadow of its former self, it would also be true. Although much of the music programmed here doesn't demand more of the octogenarian pianist than he has to give, the music that does can be tough listening. Try, for example, the third, seventh, and eighth movements of Kreisleriana, where for much of the time
Horowitz's right hand seems not to know what his left hand is doing. But much of the music lies well under
Horowitz's hands, and then his sonorous tone kicks in and the old magic returns. The pair of
Scarlatti sonatas here are amazingly lovely and the restless beauty of
Schubert's B flat major Impromptu is quite bewitching. Listeners not already familiar with his spectacular RCA and Columbia recordings are urged to hear them and discover why many considered
Horowitz to be one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. But listeners who already know those recordings and who, for whatever reason, have never heard these 1985 DG recordings, will surely relish this disc. Deutsche Grammophon's sound is lucid, vivid, and immediate.