Horszowski Plays Schumann, Mozart and Chopin

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
These are nearly ideal performances, without exception. Mieczyslaw Horszowski's Mozart is played directly, but with a wealth of nuance that conveys every subtle flicker of emotion in the music. The comfortable way he plays the tricky finale of K. 332 is remarkable. Three Chopin pieces--two mazurkas and a nocturne--are kept within fairly strict rhythmic bounds, while almost imperceptible emphases point our attention towards every expressive intention. The two Schumann works are equally remarkable. Only a faint hint of blurring in moments of Kinderszenen, barely noticeable, provides a clue that the pianist was almost 96 when he recorded this exquisite disc. --Leslie Gerber

Tracks:

Sonata In D Major, K. 576: Allegro
Sonata In D Major, K. 576: Adagio
Sonata In D Major, K. 576: Allegretto
Sonata in F major, K.332 -: Allegro
Sonata In F Major, K.332: Adagio
Sonata In F Major, K.332: Allegro assai
Mazurka in C major, Op. 24, No. 2
Nocturne in Bb minor, Op. 9, No. 1
Mazurka in B minor, Op. 33, No. 4
Arabeske, Op. 18
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Von fremden Laendern und Menschen
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Curiose Geschichte
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Hasche-Mann
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Bittendes Kind
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Glueckes genug
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Wichtige Begebenheit
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Traeumerei
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Am Camin
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Ritter vom Steckenpferd
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Fast zu ernst
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Fuerchtenmachen
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Kind im Einschlummern
Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Der Dichter spricht

Amazon.com

These are nearly ideal performances, without exception. Mieczyslaw Horszowski's Mozart is played directly, but with a wealth of nuance that conveys every subtle flicker of emotion in the music. The comfortable way he plays the tricky finale of K. 332 is remarkable. Three Chopin pieces--two mazurkas and a nocturne--are kept within fairly strict rhythmic bounds, while almost imperceptible emphases point our attention towards every expressive intention. The two Schumann works are equally remarkable. Only a faint hint of blurring in moments of Kinderszenen, barely noticeable, provides a clue that the pianist was almost 96 when he recorded this exquisite disc. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

One of the greatest ever.......2007-06-15

Listen to this, or any other Horszowski recording, and you'll come to the inescapable conclusion that he is definitely one of the greatest pianists ever. His playing of Mozart is, in my opinion, without peer. The sonatas, on this disc, and the concertos, played elsewhere, are performed with such skill and beauty that they must be listened to.
I'm not sure what's "in the water" in Poland, but that country has produced some of the greatest ever, and we're lucky that Horszowski is one of the few that we can hear great digital-quality recordings of.

Sheer Magic..........2005-09-27

Mieczyslaw Horszowski lived to the age of 101 and enjoyed the longest career in the history of the performing arts. He never achieved, or aspired to, the notoriety of his friends Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz. But in his last decade, he became something of a cult figure, his performances and recordings sought out by those curious about this last link to the Golden Age of Piano Playing, and those simply wondering whether someone so elderly could still move his fingers.

As record producer Max Wilcox wrote, "the fact that his body is old is beside the point." Wilcox, who worked with Rubinstein, signed Horszowski to the Nonesuch label in the mid-1980s, and together they made four fine recordings. This one, from 1988, is the second of those four.

From the first bar of the two Mozart Sonatas, one's ears are caressed by the beauty and variety of Horszowski's tone. It's not for nothing that he was a pupil of the great Leschetitzky, who worked ceaselessly on tonal production. (We are fortunate that Horszowski lived long enough to pass this gift onto his pupils Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu.) Horszowski neither confines the sonatas to a small scale, nor hammers compositional points home (ALA Glenn Gould), but simply plays the music in a sensible tempo, with discrete rubato and dazzlingly even passage work--which serve to remind one that Mozart was a virtuoso pianist as well as a composer.

Horszowski's Chopin is ravishing, as befits a fellow Pole--whose mother studied with Karl Mikuli, himself a pupil of Chopin. Sometimes referred to as a Romantic pianist, Horszowski is Classically oriented in all respects save two: his way of phrasing a group of notes as a singer would, and his de-emphasis of the bar line. His Mazurkas have an irresistible rhythmic lilt, and I've never heard the C major Mazurka played better.

Horszowski brings tender longing to Schumann's Arabeske, with a beautiful legato touch. He gives the Kinderszenen as if experienced in childhood, rather than as an adult's reminiscence. I don't agree with this approach. What is the disillusionment of the last piece "the Poet Speaks" if not the work of an adult composer? But, within his conception, Horszowski's performance, innocent and with flashes of humor, works on it own terms.

Recorded at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, where Horszowski taught for fifty years, the sound is clear,
spacious, and natural.

A Good CD.......1999-01-01

I believe this CD should be noted for the excellent representation of Kinderszenen it holds. Horszowski's playing is swift and steady, a good heuristic look into the life of Shumann, who was estranged from his inamorata for what she called the pianist's "immaturity" (prompting him to write these pieces). His playing is quick and apt to grow on the listener.

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