Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 /
Vladimir Horowitz
This performance, taped in 1978, is the last
time Vladimir Horowitz performed the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto in his
lifetime. By this time he had known the work for nearly sixty years.
This performance was taped a few days before Horowitz's 75th birthday, but I
would defy anyone to guess his age hearing only the audio portion. Naturally,
he can't mount all the technical hurdles quite as superhumanly as could when
he was 40. But, I have never witnessed a greater performance, either in
concert or on video.
Horowitz's intimate knowledge of this wonderful concerto is evident
throughout every bar. There is something magical about the phrasing, the
tone, Horowitz's mastery of "the big line", an art which transcends
merely putting the right finger in the right place at the right time.
Horowitz was a notoriously self-critical artist, and he was courageous enough
to change his interpretation over the years: only his later performances of
the Rachmaninoff Third are played without the difiguring cuts favored in
earlier years.
Zubin Mehta, a sympathetic accompanist, is to be credited with supporting his
soloist (who was known to never play the same piece twice in quite the same
way) and securing fine playing from the New York Philharmonic.
The videography is more than adequate and the mono sound is well balanced in
this difficult to record concerto.
