Title of Concert: Vladimir Horowitz Live Vienna (1987)

Performer: Vladimir Horowitz

3.) Horrowitz is one of the greatest pianists of all time and part of the beauty of his music is his
use of the small effects to accomplish big musical goals. In the concert he, as always, used a
highly varied range of dynamics from the softest whispering pianissimo to the most thundering
fortissimo. His tempo was a bit more loose and subject to much rubato but never to the
diminishment of taste. Being a solo piano concert, the timbre was relatively limited, however
Horowitz compensated with a wide range of colors from a small crystal bell tone, to a glowing
sotto voce melodic voice.

4.) This concert only featured a piano which obviously stood out the most.

5.) There were no singers

6.) Horowitz is a master of change in his music. In the concert, he often changed his dynamics
and touch rapidly depending on the piece. At one point, while playing the Kinderscenen of
Schumann, he concludes a soft, quiet piece and comes back in with a thunderous march-like
tune in the next piece in the set. This transition from one piece to the next was a work of art in
and of itself because of the shock it induced. Also, while playing the same set, Horowitz finished
playing the Reverie and went on with almost no rest to At the Fireside in such a manner that the
latter piece sounding almost like the perfect continuation to the previous work, in character and
with distinction yet as if one had just seized upon a new idea and thus changed their mental
state to accommodate

7.) In the concert Horowitz played Mozart’s 13th Piano Sonata. I will only discuss the first
movement. As always with Mozart, the mood is graceful and lovely, enchanting its listeners in a
realm of ecstasy. Also common with Mozart, the mood changes rather frequently in the course
of the work, in direct contrast to the single mood of the baroque era, yet only in small gradual
degrees. The emotion changes rather frequently yet always returns to the original mood at the
beginning. Mozart’s harmonic language in combination with a flowing graceful melody
accomplishes this goal throughout out using a simplicity in the voice leading and subconscious
architecture stemming from il filo, or “the thread” as Leopold Mozart referred to it. Also Mozart
uses unique, but uncomplicated rhythmic motives to achieve his signature sound of beauty and
simplicity along with a stable, unchanging tempo.