Horowitz wouldn't know musical phrasing if you put a gun to his head. If you just like to hear shapeless pounding on the keyboard, however, this disc is for you. If not, there are tons of worthwhile alternatives.

The powerful fingering of Vladimir Horowitz was his greatest personal landmark, well apart of other lavish gifts and skills. The artistic closeness with Arturo Toscanini, Fritz Reiner, Anal Dorati or Dmitri Mitropulos (or Paul van Kempen and De Sabata on the other side of the ocean), for instance based on a sharp way to conceive, feel and interpret the music, literally shocked and even molded an approach featured by grasping expansiveness of sound, a rough timber, rediscovering the sonorous possibilities supported by a basic instinct around the music gained them nay praised comments around the world.
Somehow this was not only a robust reply to a decaying Impressionism, but somhow it was the reverse of the romantic side of the coin.

This musical mainstream permeated the musical thought of many performers (from William Kapell to Leon Fleisher) and it was a perfect match respect the composers by then (Bartok, Nielsen, Hindemith, Busoni) where the music meant too a symbol of epic resistance.

This attitude maintained until the early seventies, when the elegance of the sound and the absence of fortissimos in the most Symphonies of Beethoven, were substituted by sonorous ellipsis and tonal brightness, leaving side a mercurial energy so essential in Beethoven, Bruckner or bartok, but extremely important in Mahler, Henze or Stravinsky.

However Vlada knew to maintain that kindred closeness with Scriabin and Chopin, making of him a true revelation in what the resonance of every bar, giving a feverous state of spiritual effervescence and renowned lyricism.

With the arrival of the new musical generations from diverse latitudes, behind the iron curtain the musical tradition literally had held in a sort of transition state due the isolation, the existential anguish and uncertainness respect the future.

That's why the Horowitz sound has deserved a place in the history of music, beloved by many, and hated for others, but keeping a faithful attitude of honesty and conviction about the material they were playing.

With these performances in the winter of his life, Horowitz was said goodbye to the century of fear and the horror when motivated by the call of his birthland, he decided to return to Moscow, to be known by a new generation, who knew about him and his circumstance. But that never were exception witnesses.

This profoundly beautiful recording was made in 1986, when Horowitz was 82. This was his first visit since he had left his homeland at the age of 22. The recording itself will make you cry, and when you read the CD insert, written masterfully by Charles Kuralt, of CBS News, you will cry some more. Mr. Kuralt speaks of Horowitz's life away from his homeland and his return. Many touching pictures of Horowitz with his wife, family, and music students enhance Mr. Kuralt's write up.
This recording of the live performance of Horowitz is superb. You will sit with your body rigid, with your hands cold and clenched, and with a smile of anticipation glued on your face, and will wait for the great maestro to play. Here you are, imagining that you are in Moscow, right there and then, and you are moved to tears by the music. What is it about the great performers that they make you breathless with the anticipation of the next note, although you know all these timeless favorites so well? In the search for an answer, I have gone so far even to read the books and articles about the biological foundation of music. I did find information about the neuronal connections and developments of various areas in the brains of the musicians. However, I did not find an explanation as to why is it that the average listener gets uplifted and enriched so much by the music when it is played by the great performers, but may be completely uninvolved when the lesser musicians play the same music. Do we have some sort of music receptors that can be triggered only by the selected few? In the absence of a scientific explanation, I have temporarily accepted that there is some sort of magic, which flows through the performer, and every soul in the concert hall. The great performers know how to make this magical connection with the average listeners. Somehow, I believe, the performer and the audience feed on each other.
I remember reading somewhere how Horowitz loved to perform. He said that he could make people in the audience hold their breath while his hand is up, in the great anticipation of his hand coming down to the keyboard. Yes, it is true; I was literally dying in the anticipation of the next note in many passages. Mr. Horowitz is a great master of passion. Just when you think that you cannot take any more passion, he tones it down, but he never lets the momentum of passion be lost.
You will love to death Horowitz's selection, each a real gem: Sonatas by Scarlatti and Mozart, Preludes by Rachmaninov, Etudes by Scriabin, Chopin Mazurkas, and much more.
You will love this recording!

I have a couple of hundred classical CDs, and like most of them. But this is the one I play the most. It mixes familiar piano works with others that were entirely new to me.

The concert was held during Horowitz's first return to Moscow, and the emotion of both artist and audience seem audible. Anyhow, the playing is inspired.

Upon hearing this record for the first time, I had to pinch myself to make sure I was actually listening to such an amazing, if not perfect display of talent and beauty. After having listened to it over and over again along the years, maybe more than 1000 times, I still find it hard to believe that the guy was even a human being. The only fair review for such a record would be a wordless one: nothing I can write or say would do justice to the rich, almost infinte world of emotions, thoughts and colors he's able to convey through his playing. 20 stars. ;-)