When you listen to a recording of Horowitz, you learn a lot of things about the piece played... You suddenly understand everything about the shades, the contrasts, the different voices... Later on you go back to lang lang... and you understand what is the technique... But you forget what is the musicality and the sophistication straightaway.

I heard him play this live and it was the single greatest musical experience of my life. I’ll never forget the sound of the first C sharp at the beginning - almost rose out of my seat with it.

This sounds so easy until you get into the piece with its continual "rise" and all those inner melodies and accentuated notes. Truly a "Russian" composition performed flawlessly.

I’ve played this before and my playing isn’t bad but this makes it look really mediocre. Horowitz is amazing.

Incredible, I've never heard this piece played in a deeper and clearer way than here. Wish I was there when he gave the concert.

Should we note, cameraman’s work is simply stunning.

The emotion. No one was better than Horowitz.

This kind of music & performance will either break your heart, or set you up for life, anything that life throws at you. Probably both.

That touch...that touch... it is beyond words...

Russian people suffered so much during WWII..WHen I hear this music, that's what I fell..Maybe I'm Russian deep inside me, though I'm not Russian citizen..I feel all the pain the Soviet soldiers endured and of civilians too. What the Nazis did to them..Stalingrad, Kurks, etc...

Playing like this doesn't come with practice, but with a deep, powerful and sensitive experience in understanding the music you are playing under your fingers. It doesn't come with hours of repetitions, but rather with years of listening

1:07

Scriabin aveva 16 anni quando scrisse questo piccolo grande capolavoro. Mi chiedo come si possa avere tale profondità a quell’età...Horowitz ebbe il privilegio di suonare di fronte a lui da giovane ed in seguito a chi gli chiese come fosse stato, lui rispose con un semplice: “era matto Scriabin”! In ogni modo il matto profetizzò la brillante carriera del pianista. Il bello di KZread e’ poter ascoltare in libertà e cercare di capire in autonomia. Non sono e non pretendo di essere un critico musicale, ma questa esecuzione e’ per me magnifica: Horowitz si conferma il maestro assoluto delle intenzioni. Per tre volte di fila una scala ascendente di 5 note non porta al naturale crescendo, ma ad un diminuendo. Non si va in alto, ma dentro, in profondità. L’ho sentito fare da Rachmaninov sulle proprie composizioni: si intendevano benissimo i due! E poi le intuizioni benedette: cantare con il tenore nel pianissimo...trasformare uno studio quasi in un lieder dove soprano e tenore si rispondono sottovoce. Il pianissimo a dita distese. Che dire: ho sentito Richter, Gilels: il suono perlato e magnifico non regge il confronto del racconto di Horowitz. Personalissimo e inimitabile. Cosa darei per tornare indietro nel tempo ed ascoltarlo dal vivo!

That shot at

The voicing on this is otherworldly.

I must have listened to this a hundred times now. Never tire of his wonderful playing and tremendous expression. Wish I could have been there.

Unbelievably poetic and deeply intellectual playing..Horowitz was the best, may he rest in peace...

Absolutely love how he gives space to all the voices and countermelodies one at a time, the bass voice included. The suspensions of the main melody he plays soft instead of accentuating them with more volume (at least in the beginning) - and that's how he makes them stand out. At the very end he brings out the bass line beautifully (starting with C#/B).

0:58

Perfection - Horowitz builds this enchanting work of art with his phrasing and total control of his emotions, this is as beautiful a performance as I have ever seen of any pianist, I’m dumbfounded by its beauty.....