This June 21, 1987 recital from Hamburg capped Vladimir Horowitz’s last European tour and proved to be his final public performance. It confirms what we know of the relaxed, poetic style characterizing the veteran pianist’s late-period DG recordings. His joy reconnecting with Mozart’s music is everywhere evident in the D major Rondo, while the B-flat K. 333 receives a more direct, less garishly accented interpretation in comparison with his studio traversal a few months earlier (this time Horowitz wisely ignores the first movement’s second-half repeat).
The Schubert/Liszt Valse-Caprice splits the difference between Horowitz’s solid, ever-so-slightly cautious studio version and the more volatile performance from the historic 1986 Moscow concert. His own conclusion, of course, delights as much as his revamped ending to Moszkowski’s Etincelles. Although Horowitz always garnished Schumann’s Kinderszenen with affetuoso gestures, the Hamburg reading is far superior to the overly mannered caricature from five years earlier, preserved on Horowitz in London (RCA). Yet Horowitz’s unique legato pedaling truly comes to the fore in the Chopin B minor Mazurka’s fanciful cantabiles. By playing softly with tricky details in much of the A-flat Polonaise, the old pro cannily substitutes craft for the galvanic thrust of yore. Not essential, perhaps, but thoroughly enjoyable, and very well recorded too.
