Vladimir Horowitz: The European Solo Recordings, Vol. 1

Horowitz was often accused of his volatile and uneven style of playing towards end of his career, as he was often carried away by his own playing. In these earlier recordings, there is non of those over-setimetality. His playing is fluid yet very focused with his trade mark of pearly tonal delicacy in Chopin Etudes. Liszt Bm Sonata could not be more daring. How many pianists nowadays can give such compelling, firy performance!Sound is sometimes fuzzy, but good enough to appreciate what the pianist is doing with the instrument, if you try to concentrate on piano sound. Much less background noise compared to many other recordings made in the same period.Just as Richter's 40-50s recordings, early Horowitz recordings are well worth exploring if you'd like to go back to those lost ages, when pianists could still produce something extraordinary out of music.