[.ca] Late Russian Romantics

Russian composers brought playing from Horowitz that was invariably involved and riveting. He was personally close to Rachmaninoff and commands the sprawling B-flat Minor Sonata as few others have done. It's a conflation of the composer's 1914 original and Horowitz's 1931 alterations. Elsewhere on the disc, the Medtner Fairy Tale is a delightful romp, and Scriabin's often impenetrable mysticism is set forth with appropriately Russian brooding. Here, and in the Rachmaninoff études-tableaux, Horowitz's delicacy and power argue convincingly for music that lies close to his heart. --Dan Davis

Brilliant but lots of eccentricities:
I really wanted to rate this a 4.5 but the absolute brilliance of the Scriabin etudes forced me to round upward rather than down. The Etude Op 65, No 3, is a thing of incredible beauty in the master's hands. Something unusual occurred as Horowitz evolved as an artist: His interpretations of individual works did not become static. To be sure, the size of his repertorie shrunk dramatically but those that remained he performed with a panache, newness and vibrancy that continually startle yet satisfy. This is nowhere more present than on this CD in which he gives his beloved Scriabin yet new meanings and interpretations with all the fire, passion, detail and finesse one can muster. The clarity of the notes is secondary to the overall architecture of the small pieces. As Horowitz aged the length of his performed pieces shrunk so that he achieved an almost crystaline clarity in the few short ones he did play. Ever the consumate artist, one really wonders what the guiding force of his interpretations was. Whether it is the lighting quick runs or the thundering chords or his almost unique ability to highlight all the inner voices of a piece, there was something almost undefinable about his approach to the piano. The Rachmaninoff Second was extremely idiosyncratic with none of the "waves of sound" one usually associates with the composer. It is almost as if he transformed the titanic work into a collection of brilliant miniatures, each startling in its own way but by necessity only vaguely related to the others. The best rendition of the fabulous second has to be Van Cliburn's performance in Moscow where the stunning aspect (apart from the fact that he played the original setting) was the overall architecture and organiaation, the totality of the three movements and their cyclic thematic resonance. He (Van Cliburn) also brought a stately grandeur to the sonata that is sorely lacking in this rendition. Oddly enough, the same problem holds true for the selections of Etude-Tableaux. Again we are in miniature land with brilliance and ardor but the structure again seems to have gotten lost. It is a case of not being able to see the forest for all the stunning trees. The Medtner was a fine choice and rendered with a poetic touch and much attention to detail.

• Alexander Scriabin: Feuillet d'album in E-flat major, Op. 45 No.1, Andante piacevole
• Alexander Scriabin: Etude in F-sharp minor, Op. 8 No. 2
• Alexander Scriabin: Etude in B-flat minor, Op.8 No. 11
• Alexander Scriabin: Etude in D-flat major, Op. 8 No. 8
• Alexander Scriabin: Etude in F-sharp major, Op. 42 No.3
• Alexander Scriabin: etude in F-sharp major, Op. 42 No. 3
• Alexander Scriabin: Etude in F-sharp major, Op. 42 No.4
• Alexander Scriabin: Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 42 No. 5
• Alexander Scriabin: Etude, Op.65 No.3
• Alexander Scriabin: 2 Poemes, Op. 69, No. 1 - Allegretto
• Alexander Scriabin: 2 Poemes, Op. 69, No. 2 - Allegretto
• Alexander Scriabin: Vers la flamme (poeme), Op. 72
• Alexander Scriabin: Feuillet d'album, Op.58
• Nicolai Medtner: Fairy Tale in A major, Op. 51 No.3
• Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor
• Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor
• Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor
• Sergei Rachmaninov: Prelude in G-sharp minor
• Sergei Rachmaninov: Moment musical in B minor
• Sergei Rachmaninov: Etude- Tableau in E- flat minor
• Sergei Rachmaninov: etude- Tableau in E-flat minor
• Sergei Rachmaninov: Etude- Tableau in D major