What is Horowitz's secret?

[vertigo1974]

Wow, chewbacca_90, that's pretty impressive stuff.... Horowitz, 9-11, some weird semi-racist Jewish conspiracy stuff... It's just a pity you forgot the bit about the moon landings being faked, and Elvis working in your local KFC.

I guess noone ever told you rule No.1 of the internet - hit the crackpipe AFTER you've posted.

[chewbacca_90]

Wow, chewbacca_90, that's pretty impressive stuff.... Horowitz, 9-11, some weird semi-racist Jewish conspiracy stuff... It's just a pity you forgot the bit about the moon landings being faked, and Elvis working in your local KFC.

I guess noone ever told you rule No.1 of the internet - hit the crackpipe AFTER you've posted.

Hey, that's not the first rule of the internet. Are you trying to fool me? I've been staying away from /b/ all this time just to find out the first rule was to get high after posting and not before? This... is a CONSPIRACY.

Seriously though, how was I being semi-racist? I was merely proposing an inquiry of mine, seeing there have been way too many victims of war crimes in the course of history for one single minority to hog all the screen time and awards. I am myself of Jewish descent, with distant relatives that passed away in concentration camps, nevertheless, I don't seem to be as sensitive on the subject as others...

P.S. Elvis is dead, don't screw with my head man. I'm almost off my risperidone treatment after finding out the Paul McCartney we know today is nothing but an impostor.

Best,
Alex

[g_s_223]

...
On a related tangent about other pianists with poor technique...
Why did Mikhael Pletnev, who was rather famous in his youth, stop performing and start conducting in his later age?  If you look at his technique, you'll notice he used the "eagle claw" technique, a technique acquired from finger exercises such as Hanon (or from Kung Fu.)  Could it be he just wanted to conduct or is it a direct result of having an unsustainable technique to begin with?
...

IMO, [some] pianists (and other soloists) take up conducting because there is a lot of $$$ in it - see e.g.:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/fair-pay-or-foul-play-561281.html
https://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/09/a-conductor-takes-stock-of-orchestral-wages.html
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/oct/06/orchestral-conductors-pay-cut
Clearly, one doesn't blame them for following the best opportunities. However, few who have attempted this transition have met my needs as a listener or CD purchaser.

[timtim]

It's a lot easier to play like Horowitz if you played on his piano.  You can't go 200mph in a Honda Civic but you might be able to in a Ferrari.  (Some people will take issue on this point because they fetishize his technique.)

Anyway, if you mean the flat-fingered playing, that requires practice to extend the fingers and depress them straight.  It does work, but it feels utterly unnatural to contract two opposing muscles.  But with practice, it does get easier.

You have not been here for 7 years. Hopefully you changed your hobby in the meantime, as the mountain of absurds that you wrote here are beyong my capability of understanding

[hmoll53]

Horowitz is a god that's why. It's practically impossible to play like him at such a position with flat fingers and seating position because you're not Horowitz. And don't be upset that you aren't, no one is Horowitz except for Horowitz.
Now this goes without saying there are certain things Horowitz likes to do to emphasize his effect on stage, I recall one video where it explained that he programmed works in a certain order of increasing dramatic power to grab his audience's attention and keep them excited for what's coming.
Horowitz's style is generally summarized by an extremely lyrical singing tone, lush harmonies, lightning switches between the most thunderous FFF to the most sensual PPP. Technique wise, he is an "Octavian" (A witty comment by Rosenthal when hearing the former perform TCHAIKOVSKY PC1), and he has extremely thunderous basses which he usually strikes in this very bizarre manner. Rachmaninoff noted that Horowitz does everything a pianist shouldn't do, but works for him anyways.

[dreadrocksean]

Faulty, come on. Have some serious arguments. Do you have any single proof, or do you just keep your ignorant assumptions as proof enough?

He is correct.  This from Wayne Johnson, retired lecturer, and Professor of Music.  He was kind enough to share his experience with the very Steinway Horowitz played on:

"Here’s another perspective that no one has mentioned yet that—at least partially—explains why Horowitz sometimes utilized such a flat-fingered approach.

As I’m sure most on here know, he had a favorite piano loaned to him from Steinway which he used for much of his career both at home and on the road. The piano followed him around wherever he played. After he died, Steinway allowed that piano to travel around the country to be used for special concerts, promotions, etc. It was always a fascinating conversation piece and great item of interest, if nothing else.

In the early 90’s, I received an invitation, along with a couple of other local artists, to perform at a fund-raising concert for the Seattle Symphony on that instrument. It had been shipped to the Steinway dealer there. I will never, ever forget the experience.

I have never driven a Ferrari, but playing that piano was how I would imagine how it would feel to drive something with so much power and finesse. Horowitz had had the action “doctored” by his technician to his preference so that it was extremely light. It had a bright, bell-like tone, and an incredible dynamic range. Fortissimos could be achieved with much less physical power than usual. Pianissimos were more problematic, because it was very easy to over-play.

I quickly found that using a much less decisive key stroke was the only way to tame the sound. In fact, “stroking” the key instead of “pushing” it gave much more control of soft, slower passages. That was one of Horowitz’s quirky techniques as well. And I also quickly found that flatter fingers were needed to avoid a brittle, choppy sound.

The modification of my usual technique in order to gain control came instantly, without any conscious thought or analysis on my part. It was an “aha moment” for me. A light came on as to why and how Horowitz could manipulate the sound of that instrument the way he did.

One of the other artists—a renowned pianist who also performed on that program–arrived late and didn’t get to warm up on the instrument beforehand. I’ll never forget the surprised look on her face when she sat down to perform excerpts from “Pictures at An Exhibition.” The sound literally jumped out of the piano and it took a few minutes for her to realize that she was dramatically over-playing everything by trying to use her normal technical approach.

I know this thread already has tons of commentary about Horowitz’s peculiar approach, but believe me, my first-hand experience with the actual instrument he performed on helped illuminate the mystery more than a thousand words of analysis, at least for me."

[dreadrocksean]

1. He wasn't that good of a pianist or musician to begin with, just famous.
2. He also had a special piano that made it easy to play the way he played.

Ultimately, Horowitz had a bad technique, but he had enough skill and charisma to fool a lay audience.

You're either a troll or are clueless and should not be a senior member here.  You've now lost the respect of every self respecting musician.
Horowitz was the concert pianist's Concert Pianist.  And for good reason. Ask Martha A.
Anectodatally, I have found that, before I knew who he "was", I always gravitated toward his interpretations of most works.  That sad O face you make when you finally "get" what the composer was trying to say through the fingers of a master came to mine almost every time.

That you are of the opinion that his was just a matter of charisma shows your ignorance.  He had none.  He sat stoically at the piano with expressionless face and expressionless body. None of the popular sways, graceful arm lifts, aloft wrist turns, emotional grimaces would you ever find in a Horowitz performance.  Yet the dagger through your heart from the poetry he produces stabs every time.

But you wouldn't know anything about this.

[warren e. peterson]

As I recall, Art Tatum also had some of the flat finger approach didn't he? He wasn't all that bad, was he?