The Compact Collection

Rob Cowan's Christmas-CD countdown no 3: piano

Exit Vladimir Horowitz, Carnegie Hall 1953 - high-wired speed merchant, keyboard thunderer, exhausted "circus act". Poor man was fit to drop. Enter Vladimir Horowitz, Carnegie Hall 1965, with all the old tricks intact but the maturity to use them musically. The 12 years between witnessed a long sabbatical and a handful of transitional recordings made at Horowitz's home. When CBS first released the 1965 "historic" Carnegie Hall Return Concert, those who had been there raised an eyebrow.