When asked, “Who is your favorite pianist of all pianists?” I think there are many people who would answer “Horowitz” when asked “Who is your favorite pianist? Of course, I am one of them.
I have only heard him play on CDs since I was born, but even from CDs, I can tell that his tone is distinctly different from that of other pianists.
I once saw a picture of Horowitz’s palm. It was large, soft, and indescribable. Someone once compared it to “a hand like an octopus sucker.
There are many pieces that I have come to love and learn new things about through Horowitz’s playing. Scarlatti and Scriabin are pieces in the repertoire that would be difficult to come by if I had just taken piano lessons as a normal student. But I still think that I particularly like Horowitz’s performances of Chopin’s “Hero Polonaise” and Beethoven’s “Passion” (3rd movement)…. Schumann’s “Troimelai” is too much of a waste of time to listen to.
My mother went to hear Horowitz’s Tokyo performance only once. The music critic Hidekazu Yoshida described the concert as “a cracked piece of bone marrow.
My mother, however, was more puzzled by the sound of the piano than by the mistiming. During the intermission, a crowd of people gathered under the stage to see Horowitz’s piano.
If I could hear Horowitz perform live today, I would be willing to pay a million yen. Of course, I cannot easily pay such a large sum of money, but there is no doubt that this is a piano that moves me to desperate to listen to it even if I have to pay that much.
