My wife, Debbie, was ripping some old CDs that we have in our collection and, rather than twiddling her thumbs, she started to read the liner notes while she waited for ITunes to do that saving thing. When she got to this CD, she forgot about ITunes and lost herself in the notes.
Horowitz wrote his own notes for this CD. Debbie put them on her scanner and then insisted I read them.
Well, here I am cribbing from his notes.
I don’t feel too bad about putting his words in my blog since DG recycled the same words in at least one other CD/DVD compilation.
Vladimir Horowitz on performing:
Classical, Romantic, Modern, Neo-Romantic!
These labels may be convenient for musicologists, but they have nothing to do with composing or performing. In fact, they may be more of a hindrance than a help in the education of young performers. All music is the expression of feelings, and feelings do not change over the centuries. Style and form change, but not the basic human emotions. Purists would have us believe that music from the so-called Classical period should be performed with emotional restraint, while so-called Romantic music should be played with emotional freedom. Such advice has often resulted in exaggeration, overindulgent, uncontrolled performances of Romantic music and dry, sterile, dull performances of Classical music.
As far as Mozart is concerned, we know from his letters that he showed great concern for musical expression: he continually criticized performers whose playing lacked freedom for their “mechanical execution” and the absence of “taste and feeling”. As for Beethoven, historical accounts describe his playing as very free and emotional – the trademark of a Romantic.
All my life, ever since I was a young man, I have considered music of all periods romantic. There is, of course, an objective, intellectual component to music insofar as its formal structure is concerned; but when it comes to performance, what is required is not interpretation but a process of subjective re-creation.
The notation of a composer is a mere skeleton that the performer must endow with flesh and blood, so that the music comes to life and speaks to an audience. The belief that going back to an Urtext will ensure a convincing performance is an illusion. An audience does not respond to intellectual concepts, only to the communication of feelings.
A dictionary definition of ”romantic” usually includes the following: “Displaying or expressing love or strong affection; ardent, passionate, fervent.” I cannot name a single great composer of any period who did not possess these qualities. Isn’t, then, all music romantic? And shouldn’t the performer listen to his heart rather than to intellectual concepts of how to play Classical, Romantic or any other style of music?
Of course, mastery implies control – in music as well as in life. But control that is creative does not limit or restrain feelings or spontaneity. It is rather a setting of standards, limits and boundaries in regard to taste, style and what is appropriate to each composer. In order to become a truly re-creative performer, and not merely an instrumental wizard, one needs three ingredients in equal measure: a trained, disciplined mind, full of imagination; a free and giving heart; and a Gradus ad Parnassum command of instrumental skill. Few musicians ever reach artistic heights with these three ingredients evenly balanced. This is what I have been striving for all my life.
Liner notes to “Horowitz At Home” and “The Magic of Horowitz” published by Deutsche Grammophon GmbH.
I have to thank Debbie for looking beneath the cover and finding these jewels of thought and musical wisdom.
Horowitz is now one more dead white guy among many, but I think we are forced to overlook that post-modern epithet, because his recordings stand as brilliant testimony that he knows what he is talking about. Well “forced” is a little strong. Nobody can be forced to purchase the recordings that put flesh on the bones that are the words of his liner notes. By banning his artistry from your ears, you can feel safe believing Horowitz to be just another white guy shilling for White hegemony. 
Move away from the “H” bin at Tower Records. OH! I’m sorry…… Like,,, it’s so yesterday. Tower Records closed its last door in 2006. There is no “H” bin because there is no Tower Records in which you can avoid it. I’m so sheltered here in Plattsburgh that I didn’t even notice it went belly-up.
Horowitz figured it out. Horowitz walked the walk of his talk, and I tell my students to listen to his recordings for hints on how to shape vocal lines. His recordings have yet to stop surprising me with interesting turns of phrase that I missed in the many previous plays I have enjoyed. I share his dedication to the proposition that audiences want performers to communicate feelings. Garcia surely believed the same thing.
I just sent out the last of my editing work on the Garcia translation I have been editing. Now it’s up to Donald Paschke, the translator, to check my efforts give his approval or send me corrections. The pages of this publication are Garcia’s “Gradus ad Parnassum” guide to singing: A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing: Part One.
At the start of the New Year, I will begin editing Paschke’s translation of Part Two. That second book is full of guidance for just how to engage in the sort of artistic endeavor Vladimir called “subjective re-creation”. It is a guide that young people really need. It has everything a singer needs to know about performing, and I am going to get it back in print. Garcia and Horowitz spoke the same musical language. Garcia Sr. was the best tenor. Garcia Jr. taught the best singers. Horowitz was the best pianist. All of them, just dead white guys. Who am I? Well, I’m not dead yet.