April 14, 1965: Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York (Studio) [Rehearsal]

5,000 subscribers special!

Horowitz planned a comeback in 1965 with ambitious works. Schumann's Fantasy in C major, Scriabin's 9th Piano Sonata, and the Bach-Busoni. Not only his most confident works, new repertoires he never played again.
He started numerous recitals, including his graduation recital in Kiev Conservatory, with the BWV 564. This was the last concert he performed Bach in public.
He didn't play Bach very often, but the Busoni transcriptions were exceptions. He recorded three Bach-Busoni choral preludes and also played Toccata and Fugues, unfamiliar as standard repertoire.

He was a true tone wizard. He was well aware of the organ aspect of the original piece. 1:54 sounds just like using the other stops on the organ. 2:25 is the first keyboard release after two minutes of organ pedal play in the original piece. That feeling of freedom, this is probably what Bach intended.
2:41, 2:57, and 3:06 are where the same melody appears in three different voices, respectively. Emphasizing a melody on the piano, especially when it comes to external vocals, is not quite easy. 3:15 - Several passages appear that repeat the same phrase three times. He never makes them sound the same. And the build-up from 5:05! 5:51 is the most powerful bass drop I've ever heard.

The second movement is a perfect melancholy expressed in a fantastical tone - every note is singing. Notice the complex polyphonic passage at 10:17. He handles the three different voices appearing in the right hand as if they were played by different hands. And that plot twist at the end.

The fugue makes this performance the best. In the organ, this fugue is played on two different keyboards and pedals. A clear distinction is therefore made between the confusing voices. But it is quite difficult on the piano. Further, to make organ-like sounds, Busoni doubles many passages in the octaves, and it gets more tricky to make voice distinctions between them, especially in that he's playing one piano. But 12:40 - that's one of the clearest tonal division I've ever heard on a single piano. It sounds like he's playing on two different pianos! And that's how the organ works. The similar thing happens at 14:21.
The sudden tonal transition to b minor at 14:57 is just amazing. It's the most fairy-like tone I've ever heard on a piano. 16:14 is with the pesante octaves, reminiscent of organ pedals, which develops the climax of the work.

Lastly, about the sound source used in the video - the official release of the repertoire related to the legendary comeback in 1965 is based on the live recording on May 9 of the same year: Scriabin's 9th Sonata, Schumann's Fantasie, Chopin Ballade No. 1, etc.
Now that all 5 rehearsal recordings, including two from April, have been released, I can say he was pretty nervous at the concert on May 9th, 1965. (Apart from the rehearsals, that in itself would have been enough. An article appeared on the front page of the New York Times and the police came out to clear the crowd in front of Carnegie Hall.) So he was nimbler, a bit more daring, and more surprising in rehearsals. Those things are basically at the risk of a miss-touch; in a rehearsal, there is no problem if such attempts result in miss notes, but not in concerts.
Nevertheless, the album at the time was basically released based on the live recording. Essentially it was a reflection of the public's desire to listen to the recital, which was of great interest to the people of the time. Now that all the material has been released, we can hear everything he wanted to put into the pieces with all his heart. So I made a completely new and better (in that it better reflects Horowitz's intentions) compilation based on the recordings of his rehearsals. That's what I also did in my previous Scriabin Sonata video:    • [Previously Unreleased] Scriabin: Pia...  .
In particular, it took a lot of time to edit the sheet music. It's something I've never tried before. There was a lot of trial and error, so I ran into difficulties and forgot about it for a while, but I am happy to now present it to you. So please enjoy.



00:00 (Introduction)
00:21 Preludio: Tempo moderato
06:57 Intermezzo: Adagio
12:19 Fuga: Moderatamente scherzando