# Vladimir Horowitz. Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No. 1 / Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 2



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

This week's installment of _Once Upon the Internet_ brings us back to the Italian Public Domain site_LiberMusica_, for a pair of concerti featuring Vladimir Horowitz, his Father-in-Law Arturo Toscanini and his NBC Symphony Orchestra.

The source pages from the Italian site don't clearly identify the performances - a search on the Web using the title of the source album strongly suggests that the tracks come from a Classica D'oro recording which, according to AllMusic.com, was a March 2001 remastered reissue of 1940's recordings of these concerti. There is a plethora of digitally restored albums reissuing these well-travelled recordings, notably a _Naxos Historical_ recording which has the benefit of copious background and technical notes.

According to these excellent notes (excerpts liberally rearranged):



> Vladimir Horowitz held a singular place in twentieth-century music. He was both an international celebrity and serious artist whose performances and recordings were anxiously anticipated and widely discussed. His recordings of Brahms's Second Concerto (1940) and Tchaikovsky's First Concerto (1941) are among the most influential piano recordings ever produced and they helped to propel his career into the 1940s and beyond.
> 
> Perhaps through a combination of dutiful compliance to his wife and Toscanini's renowned indomitable will, Horowitz always remained far more in awe of his father-in-law, at least when in his company, both socially and musically. Referring to the Brahms concerto recording, he famously remarked at a later time, "Toscanini had his own conception, and I followed it, even if it was sometimes against my own wishes."
> 
> ...


For many music lovers the 1941 recording of the Tchaikovsky, long available on 78-rpm discs and later on vinyl LPs, is one of the very Romantic interpretations of the concerto and it is an absolute treasure.

Happy Listening!








*Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)*
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, op. 83
https://www.liberliber.it/online/au...-orchestra-no-2-in-si-bemolle-maggiore-op-83/

*Peter Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)*
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, op. 23 [TH 55]
https://www.liberliber.it/online/au...olle-minore-per-pianoforte-e-orchestra-op-23/

Vladimir Horowitz, piano
NBC Symphony Orchestra
Arturo Toscanini. Conducting
Recorded 9th May, 1940 (Brahms), and 14th May, 1941 (Tchaikovsky) in Carnegie Hall, New York City

Source album: Classica d'Oro 3001


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