Concerto No 3, Horowitz:Rodzinski NYPO, live, restored

This performance is simply staggering. If you know the music and play it, you know how impossibly great it is. Horowitz had one of the greatest God-given gifts in the history of music performance. His life was tortured because of the heavy price he paid as the care-taker of that gift. He was all too aware of what audiences expected of him, and he suffered in dealing with those expectations. In turn, his wife led a very difficult life, and their child paid her own ultimate price. The people who handled Mr. Horowitz's career also suffered. All of this so his audiences and we in posterity are able to bask in the beauties and the sometimes demonic power Horowitz wielded. We owe Mr. Horowitz, his family, and his colleagues, a debt of gratitude for the permanent and indelible gift he and they gave to the music world.

This recording is actually from 1944. A complete recording of this has been discovered and will be issued soon.

1943! … that was a time when WW2 was in full swing and where the German invasion of Russia was starting to falter and the Pacific front was taking a huge toll. It was also the year Rachmaninov died, just a few months before this concert at Carnegie Hall. Horowitz was a very close friend. The emotional atmosphere must have been really charged.

30:05-30:45
One of the greatest moments in all of classical music

Little did the audience know that they were going to hear the most staggering cadenza ever

A timeless and historic treasure. What Horowitz does in the cadenza makes everyone else sound like an amateur.

Horowitz is in a class of his own and he has always had a special connection with this concerto, which became more popular thanks to his performances. There are, of course, other fantastically virtuosic performances which may surpass Horowitz's in terms of mere precision. But Horowitz's historical importance and interpretative vision remain something to be treasured for future generations. If recording technology had been as advanced as it is today, we would listen to a combination of reckless speed and sheer beauty of sound which remains unequalled. Horowitz knew 'how to play' like no one else.

Just wonderful. I thought my recording of Horowitz and Barbirolli playing this concerto was the ultimate but this is somehow more perfect. Horowitz manages to play at a blistering pace without ever seeming rushed or stretched (where so many others can sound either skittish or clattering). At the same time he manages the yearning of the second movement and the ebb and flow of the first just perfectly. Really a recording for the ages

Imagine if we could listen to this with a better audio quality

After more than 30 years of knowing and loving this concerto, today I just heard for the first time again... I am still shaking... What a monumental treasure this recording is! And to think that for so many years I held tight to a few favorites... That has all changed today.

I have 45 recordings but this one takes the cake.

9:57 and just like that, all time ceases to move

7:00 .... orgiac ..... demence , psychiatric music ..... the walls of reason just falling down , ... Horowitz on the most dangerous and toxic way ...... but THE FANTASTIC ONE ! And always this tremendous , tremendous beauty ..... !

The year of Rachmaninoff's death, middle of WW II, ...explains the flaming urgency of the performance.Wonderful and idiomatic collaboration from Rodzinski and the orchestra.Well...all in America then were blessed with S.R. playing. yearly,.his favorite orchestra with the great romantic conductor, Stowkowki.Actually once S.R. and V.H. left Bolshevik Russia, the Russian romantic tradition moved to America and the UK,,,,,with Lhevinne, Medtner, Heifetz, Elman, Milstein,Piatagorsky, Koshetz all safer ...and richer in the West.

Horowitz and Rodzinski, two great masters who had technique, musicality and guts. It's great to hear them take such risks and pull it off.

I agree with all these comments. I have listened to scores of recorded performances of this work. Horowitz’ recordings, both studio and live, have always been near the top of the heap. However, the very top for me, for 40+ years, has been William Kapell’s live performances of the concerto (1947 and 1953, respectively). Kapell is my favorite classical pianist, and his live performances of Rach III have been my gold standard. I had pretty well settled into that opinion, for a long time, and expected that I would continue in it, until shuffling off the old mortal coil, if you catch my meaning. (Just to clarify, I’m not saying Kapell was a better pianist than Horowitz, or that Horowitz didn’t own this work, or that the stamp of approval for Horowitz’ performances of this work by the composer, was in error as it were. I just have a somewhat sentimental favorite in Kapell and I thought his Rach III’s were musically superb, and very moving).
All the above about Kapell, UNTIL I heard this Horowitz/Rodzinski collaboration. My God. There are moments here which are hard to believe. That a human being could do on the piano, what Horowitz did, I mean. Honestly I sometimes think a spaceship must have dropped him off from another planet. Technically and musically, this is a superhuman performance. I think Horowitz defied the laws of pianistic physics. One is not supposed to be able to change the sound, once a note has been struck. Dynamically, or with regard to tonal character. But Horowitz manages somehow, to do it. I could go on and on.
One of the comments above, says this performance will be released, commercially. I want to be first in line for that purchase!

Spectacular. Stupendous. Sublime. And to think-- he was playing this at 19 years old. Thank you for sharing this with us. Horowitz would have loved the internet and knowing how much we (SO MANY people all over the world) love him and his playing. Thank you for this, a treasure indeed.

Horowitz has been criticized many times because of the wrong notes, but it's clear that those people only judge him by his later performances: the clarity (together with the agility) of the young Horowitz on many passages of this concerto never cease to astonish me. It seems to me that many modern pianists only care about making rapid executions that often compromise the final rendition, with fast passages nearly unaudible.

There are no words to describe this terrifyingly glorious performance-supernatural!!

I can only imagine being in the audience and experiencing this performance. What goosebumps and ecstasy must have permeated those in attendance.

As much as I love the live Horowitz/Ormandy collaboration with NYPO in 1978, because of maturity and sonics.....I must admit this early version with Rodzinski surpasses that with intensity and excitement that no other performaer has achieved EVER!! Thank you for sharing this great recording from the archives!!

30:06: this is from outer space. Nobody ever played it that way. Not even himself….

Фантастическое исполнение. Спасибо за реставрацию записи.

The huge end of the cadenza here fills me with dread.

Adorable Utube, thank you for pleasure. It's like time machine. Can listen to recorded in 1944 and then when Horowitz in Vienna, when he was 80+ life between.. fantastic feeling. Thank you very very much.

This is incredible I don't think any pianist came close to Horowitz with Rach 3 and this particular performance is probably the best and that is really saying something. The speed and the quality is unbelievable

Between the 1930 and 1950 recordings. Technically and musically perfect.

I, too, am totally astonished by this performance. Thank you for sharing it!

30:00 this is ..... this is ..; not to be described ..... a lion roaring in front of the poor gladiator , a brutal rape , a bloody carnage , full of violence and hate ...... BUT A MOMENT OF SUCH A PRIMITIVE BEAUTY ;;;;; this may be really unprecedented in this third of Rachmaninov .....
Thank you , Mr. Dakar Dave , men like you are priceless .....

Very special, outstanding!

Increíble. E insuperable (si acaso sólo por su grabación con Barbirolli). Gracias.

This is absolutely fantastic ........ extatic .................

No one did/do the passage from 10:15 to 10:25 at that speed...it's totally crazy

I've had a recording of Rachmaninoff himself playing this concerto since the mid 60s when RCA re-issued it. I also have the original 78s. Now the restored version you reference here is available and even more amazing. Thanks for posting this and your comments.

これを実際にホールで聴いていたら人生になんの悔いも無くなるだろうな。

Genius performance.

Полная неожиданность - нет перевода на русский язык!
Жаль, ведь как много можно было узнать из комментариев!?!
Моё потрясение от исполнения этого концерта невозможно описать! Всё б о ж е с т в е н н о !

Never heard it better...!

10:31 to all pianists here ..... try this at home , my friends ....

Horowitz!

Fantastic!

Amazing playing, thanks for sharing.

Titanic performance, quite possibly the single finest rendition of this concerto ever recorded. Shame about the missing segment in the 2nd movement though.

Actually The Great Horowitz! similar to his recording with conduct reiner but this has more passion and his crazy(?) bursting sound. Thank you for such a rare, speldid performance.

Love it

Thanks for sharing
9,40 is just crazy

"Oh, if you really want to hear this piece, listen to it played by...." Fill in the name. And maybe so, maybe not. However, no name you can fill in can substitute for the magic and the aura that are unique to Horowitz. Horowitz brought with him the anticipation of the listener, from the moment the listener learned of the scheduled performance, to the acquisition of tickets, to the day of the event. "The event," that phrase sums up the unique quality of any Horowitz appearance. He was the Willie Mays of the world of noble music.

31:51 ..... this rage ...... this incredible rage , always present with him in the summital moments ...... as he would like to destroy , to exterminate even the music itself ....

WOW

I heared there is somewhere in the archives of the Lucerne Festival a recording of this concert whit Horowitz and Rachmaninoff itself conducting. Some voices say it is gone lost, others say it is just a legend. I know from my researches that Horowitz and Rachmaninoff made it in concert togedear in Lucerne. If it was taken on tape, I don't know...

F or the age of this recording it is amazing

I NEED TO KNOW IF RACH WAS THERE, because he died the same year!! I gotta know.

I love the accelerando at 31:22 to the end! Most thrilling ending of all his versions, in my opinion.

Both Horowitz and Artur Rodzinski knew Rachmaninoff personally. Composer directions came from the first hands.

Parts missing in 2nd movement.???
Amazing performance though.
Thank you.

Cadenza: 9:30

C’est de la radio!......

Rachmaninoff died earlier in the year of this performance, which was 25 November 1943, the way Horowitz plays the concerto is almost completely different than any of his previous recordings.

I love the Zubin Mehta performance, too. And we can watch it, which is great.

him has blood in his fire and fire in his blood
he like water or like crystal or like a thunderstorm
alchemist of music who understood and mastered the elementary
basics of music
was still connected to real life
without the electronic dragen that
eat all magic power of people nowdays

this is the fastest version iv ever heard. although some parts may seems not that decent as Argerich's performance

None of the commentators so far has said what I learned many years ago, sorry I do not recall the source: Rachmaninoff himself said he thought Horowitz played this better than he did, something about his Russian-Jewish background brought more understanding than he did of his own music.

27:20

What a god!

I have often been wondering if the playing speed is different in these old recordings, usually littlebit too fast. I mean, recording is played faster than the original concert have been. It is most clearly seen in Soviet recordings (those Richter playing Chopin etydes etc. where the whole tonality is half step up due to faster speed). Also this recording is very much relaxed if you slow down it littlebit. Its possible to do in settings and own setup -> 0.9x or 0.95x. If you do that, tempos are somewhat same than in late Horowitz-Mehta performance. Its worth of try, tell me what do you think!
Edit: I did check, a1 is around 440hz here, but it can be modified in remastering. You never know :)

is this available on CD ?

This has to be sped up? WOW.

An amazing digital achievement to be sure, though I must confess the performance has me concentrating more on Horowitz than Rachmaninoff. For lovers of this concerto I'd like to suggest two other recordings as well, though neither of real commercial audio quality. The first is an early 40s reading by Walter Gieseking, Barbirolli and the N.Y. Philharmonic. The other is by pianist Santiago Rodriguez and a community orchestra in Illinois. Both live, the sound on the Rodriguez is good for an in-house recording. The Gieseking was from radio and has mild acetate noise. Each of these performances is simply astounding.
Pace Vladimir.

Wonderful! But well, Gilels gets very close to it. What wonderful unbelievable gems comes from the Russia!

Around half of the 2nd movement is missing! :(

Like, was this before or AFTER the death of the great ol' Sergey Vasilievich Rachmaninoff my goodness sake.

Every other performance, except for Rach himself, sounds like a child compared to this one.

Of course Horowitz remains one of the best performers of this concerto (if not the best). But why he always slows down in the finale at bar 39 (21:06). It is so heavy and not very tasteful (at least for me). Rachmaninoff himself did not play it like that.

Nobody else comes even close? Check out Volodos. In my opinion his rec. with Berlin Phil is the best, from the point view of clarity and technicall fluency. If one knows the piece and listen to his rendition, one could very clear hear all the places where he very subtile changes the notes, and I don't mean what he does with the bass in some places. Listen to his right hand. Haha Volodos tricks everybody.

忠成

I like the one with Zubin Mehta better is more mature.and conveys the message more clearly. This is only fast and showy. Young Horowitz had something to proof.

it sounds like someone is eating

This is the account Horowitz made in 1892 at age 10. Poor sound even for the 19th century.

Horrible. If I played like that my teacher would whip me.