By Charles Michener 10/06/03 12:00am

The Singular Horowitz Remembered, Warts and All

The other day, Schuyler Chapin reminisced about the afternoon of May 9, 1965, when he was standing backstage at Carnegie Hall with Vladimir Horowitz. It was a “stinking hot Sunday,” and the legendary pianist was playing his first recital after a 12-year absence from the public (a disappearance that remains unexplained to this day). Horowitz Read More

By Charles Michener 11/12/01 12:00am

Classical Piano’s Last Romantic Tames the Mechanical Beast

In Bruno Monsaingeon’s indispensable collection of memories and

musings by the greatest of postwar pianists, Sviatoslav Richter: Notebooks and Conversations (Princeton

University Press), the always unfettered Richter gives this reaction to the

playing of an older Russian giant of the keyboard, as heard on the video Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic :

“Phenomenal and off-putting Read More