44 Facts About Vladimir Horowitz

Vladimir Horowitz was born in Kiev, then part of the Russian Empire.

Vladimir Horowitz was the youngest of four children of Samuil Horowitz and Sophia Bodik, who were assimilated Jews.

Vladimir Horowitz's grandfather Joachim was a merchant, belonging to the 1st Guild, which exempted him from having to reside in the Pale of Settlement.

Vladimir Horowitz was born in 1903, but in order to make him appear too young for military service so as not to risk damaging his hands, his father took a year off his son's age by claiming that he was born in 1904.

Vladimir Horowitz's uncle Alexander was a pupil and close friend of Alexander Scriabin.

Related searches

When Vladimir Horowitz was 10, it was arranged for him to play for Scriabin, who told his parents that he was extremely talented.

Vladimir Horowitz received piano instruction from an early age, initially from his mother, who was herself a pianist.

Vladimir Horowitz soon began to tour Russia and the USSR, where he was often paid with bread, butter and chocolate rather than money, due to the economic hardship caused by the Russian Civil War.

In December 1925, Vladimir Horowitz emigrated to Germany, ostensibly to study with Artur Schnabel in Berlin but secretly intending not to return.

In 1926, the Soviet Union selected Vladimir Horowitz to join the delegation of pianists that were to represent the country at the I International Chopin Piano Competition in Poland in 1927, but he decided to remain in the West and did not participate.

Vladimir Horowitz played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 under the direction of Sir Thomas Beecham, who was making his U S debut.

Vladimir Horowitz later said that he and Beecham had divergent ideas about tempos and that Beecham was conducting the score "from memory and he didn't know" the piece.

In 1926, Vladimir Horowitz performed on several piano rolls at the Welte-Mignon studios in Freiburg, Germany.

In 1962, Vladimir Horowitz embarked on a series of recordings for Columbia Records.

Vladimir Horowitz continued making studio recordings, including a 1969 recording of Schumann's Kreisleriana, which was awarded the Prix Mondial du Disque.

In 1975, Vladimir Horowitz returned to RCA and made live recordings until 1983.

Vladimir Horowitz signed with Deutsche Grammophon in 1985, and made studio and live recordings until 1989, including his only recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No 23.

Vladimir Horowitz's final recording, for Sony Classical, was completed four days before his death and consisted of repertoire he had never previously recorded.

All of Vladimir Horowitz's recordings have been issued on compact disc, some several times.

Vladimir Horowitz taught seven students between 1937 and 1962: Nico Kaufmann, Byron Janis, Gary Graffman, Coleman Blumfield, Ronald Turini, Alexander Fiorillo and Ivan Davis .

Vladimir Horowitz claimed that he had only taught three students during that period.

Vladimir Horowitz returned to coaching in the 1980s, working with Murray Perahia, who already had an established career, and Eduardus Halim.

In 1933, in a civil ceremony, Vladimir Horowitz married Wanda Toscanini, Arturo Toscanini's daughter.

Vladimir Horowitz's was critically injured in a motorbike accident in 1957 but survived.

Vladimir Horowitz was a difficult man, to say the least.

Related searches

In 1982 Vladimir Horowitz began using prescribed antidepressant medications; there are reports that he was drinking alcohol as well.

Vladimir Horowitz's playing underwent a perceptible decline during this period, with his 1983 performances in the United States and Japan marred by memory lapses and a loss of physical control.

In 1986, Vladimir Horowitz announced that he would return to the Soviet Union for the first time since 1925 to give recitals in Moscow and Leningrad.

Vladimir Horowitz was buried in the Toscanini family tomb in the Cimitero Monumentale, Milan, Italy.

Vladimir Horowitz is best known for his performances of the Romantic piano repertoire.

Many consider Vladimir Horowitz's first recording of the Liszt Sonata in B minor in 1932 to be the definitive reading of that piece, even after over 75 years and more than 100 performances committed to disc by other pianists.

Vladimir Horowitz premiered the Piano Sonata and Excursions of Samuel Barber.

Vladimir Horowitz was known for his versions of several of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies.

Transcriptions aside, Vladimir Horowitz was not opposed to altering the text of compositions to improve what he considered "unpianistic" writing or structural clumsiness.

In 1940, with the composer's consent, Vladimir Horowitz created his own performance edition of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Sonata from the 1913 original and 1931 revised versions, which pianists including Ruth Laredo and Helene Grimaud have used.

Vladimir Horowitz substantially rewrote Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition to make the work more effective on the grounds that Mussorgsky was not a pianist and did not understand the possibilities of the instrument.

Vladimir Horowitz altered short passages in some works, such as substituting interlocking octaves for chromatic scales in Chopin's Scherzo in B minor.

Vladimir Horowitz's interpretations were well received by concert audiences, but not by some critics.

Vladimir Horowitz was able to produce an extraordinary volume of sound from the piano without producing a harsh tone.

Vladimir Horowitz elicited an exceptionally wide range of tonal color, and his taut, precise attack was noticeable even in his renditions of technically undemanding pieces such as the Chopin Mazurkas.

Vladimir Horowitz is known for his octave technique; he could play precise passages in octaves extraordinarily quickly.

Byron Janis, one of Vladimir Horowitz's students, said that Vladimir Horowitz tried to teach him that technique but it didn't work for him.

Vladimir Horowitz's body was immobile, and his face seldom reflected anything other than intense concentration.

Vladimir Horowitz preferred to perform on Sunday afternoons, as he felt audiences were better rested and more attentive than on weekday evenings.