BMG’s remastering for Vladimir Horowitz’s November 1981 Metropolitan Opera recital enhances the ambience and definition of the original Soundstream digital tape, bringing the artist’s difficult-to-record sonority a shade closer to reality. The late-1970s/early-1980s were a mannered period for the mercurial pianist, and his bel canto-inspired accentuation and rubatos often come perilously close to self-caricature. Still, his genius for color and dynamic thundering are fully intact, though his 78-year-old fingers get bogged down in the Rachmaninov G Minor Prelude and the coda of Chopin’s Fourth Ballade. The repeats Horowitz took in the Scarlatti Sonatas, by the way, originally were omitted from both LP and CD releases. Couldn’t BMG have restored them this time around?
