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Home    View Cart    Alavio    Contact Us Search Roadkill Books Current Category Music    Classical       Ballets & Dances All Categories Narrow by Category Ballets Polonaises Chopin: Piano Music Detail Center Header Text Above Items (Larger Image) Chopin: Piano Music by (Composer: Frederic Chopin) (Performer: Vladimir Horowitz) Product Group: Music Studio: Sony Classics ISBN: B00005OCH6 EAN: 0743216800827 UPC: 743216800827 Audio CD Release Date: 2001-10-23 SKU: T0709DVD1-6537 Condition: Like New Comments: Like new CD. Like new condition. Orginal case and artwork. No scratches. Ships first class same day or next in a bubble mailer. Enjoy. Customer Reviews More like a parody Rating (2) Date: 2004-06-01 4 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful The good news about this disc is that RCA's remastering is excellent: even though these performances are some 25 years old, nearly every detail of the pianist is beautifully captured and the piano tone is great. That does not apply to the playing, unfortunately. The G minor ballade and Fantaisie-Polonaise are simply frustrating. Oh certainly, Horowitz has a lovely tone most of the time, and it's pretty well audible that this is not your neighbour playing. At spare moments he gives wonderful new insights into these pieces. But even then, his distorting manners and brittle fingers cannot be excused. Especially nasty is his habit to slam very hard on a few chords when his technique has left him alone for a while. And this happens just a bit too often, especially in the trickier sections of the ballade. The coda of the poor piece is just butchered. His over-the-top and endlessly dragging phrasing in both works isn't very pleasant either and gives a chaotic feeling. And if you know that VH does not play the last chord of the Polonaise in ff (as Chopin wrote), but the last TWO chords instead, that indicates well how awful the rest of this performance is, too. A little better -less crude- are the Barcarolle and F minor ballade, yet here too the distorting and messy phrasing makes them hard to enjoy. The barcarolle merely sounds like a boat that has lost its direction, and I don't get any idea of a clue in Horowitz' playing. The F minor Ballade, although clearer, is still so exaggeratedly charged that I can't really enjoy it. And the coda is, once again, a banged-up mess. As for the two etudes: the c sharp minor is quite bad but the G flat major makes something good: although he clearly slowed down for technical reasons, the piece sounds politer than usually and most textures are nicely laid out. A pity that he decided to exaggerate the last notes so much, however. The nocturnes are recordings from 1957, apparently representing Horowitz in better form. But these pieces too are a disappointment: the recorded sound is dry and dull (not sure whose fault this is) and Horowitz' playing itself doesn't make too much sense either: it is all too busy and indifferent and fails reach depth. It doesn't sound as if he really loved the pieces. At least the closure of this `recital' is worth it, a little waltz that is beautifully coloured and charming. But this is a disc that should be avoided nevertheless: it is frustrating to hear how so many great pieces are mistreated by a pianist at a less good day of his. Try looking for Horowitz' earlier Sony recordings of Chopin and see why RCA should be really ashamed for this awful release. The Magic of Horowitz, The Magic of Restoration Rating (5) Date: 2003-04-10 1 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful This is an album for all who love the piano works of Chopin, but especially for those who crave the romantic approach to these wondrous pieces. Horowitz was a keyboard wizard and poet and nowhere is this heard as clearly as in the Opus 23 Ballade. His command of the full range of the keyboard was dazzling but it is his birth of the melody that grows out of the brief wandering introductory phrases that is simply indescribable. Usually not one for the 'bits and pieces' approach to a CD, this Chopin Sampler seems strangely fitting as a reminder of the wonder of Horowitz wizardry. The restored sound is surprisingly excellent. 24bit/96kHZ Resolution Rating (5) Date: 2002-09-30 2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful This year 2001 issue contains all previously released material. Total of 11 pieces with playing time 73 minites were coming from "Horowitz in London - 1982", "Horowitz at Met - 1981", in concert 1979~1980 and 4 Nocturnes were recorded in 1957. All the piano playing here are excellent as always found in all other Horowitz recordings which are just can not go wrong. The value in this issue is that these pieces were digitally remastered in higher resolution 24bit/96kHZ. RCA's Horowitz/Chopin Grab-Bag Rating (3) Date: 2001-11-06 4 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful This CD reissue contains all of Horowitz' stereo RCA Chopin recordings, along with a few mono items. Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasy was a Horowitz specialty for many years. He was playing this piece as far back as the 1920s, when few pianists dared to touch such a structurally complex work. His best recording of this piece remains the 1966 version taped lived in Carnegie Hall. This can be found on Volume 3 of Sony's complete Horowitz issue. The 1982 version is among the most mannered playing Horowitz ever approved for commercial release. The phrasing and metric pulse sag, and the piece fails to cohere. Chopin's Ballade in g minor was another piece Horowitz played constantly. Again, his best version of this work can be found elsewhere, including Volumes 3 (1965) and 4 (1968) of the Sony set. The aforementioned problems are also in evidence here. In addition, some of Horowitz' playing is technically sub-par, with an awkward coda that sounds banged. Horowitz' treatment of the nocturnes was his least successful Chopin playing. Instead of letting the works unfold simply and naturally, as Arthur Rubinstein did, Horowitz felt the need to soup-them-up with distorted phrasing and exotic voicings. This group of four nocturnes, recorded in 1957, are further sabotaged by "under the lid" microphone placement. Horowitz recorded the Barcarolle several times. His 1980 live recording contains the typical Horowitz mannerisms of that period, with an erotically charged coda. The old charmer is present for the "Black Key" Etude, while the c-sharp minor Etude is given rather perfunctory treatment. Horowitz seemed more at home in Chopin's Ballade #4 than he did in the first Ballade. The phrasing, dynamics, and dramatic build up are just so "right" here, that one can scarcely imagine a better performance--even with the occasional minor slip of finger. The Chopin Waltz combines both--very different--editions of Chopin's text, with perhaps a dash of Horowitz' melancholy. The sound quality varies, which is understandable considering the range of recordings times and venues. These performances have already received multiple releases on CD. One wishes RCA would do Horowitz' memory a real service--instead of merely exploiting it--and undertake a full Horowitz reissue as they've done for Rubinstein and William Kapell. Retail Price: $6.98 Our Price:$3.98 That's 43% Off! Detail Center Footer Text Below Items

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