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Vladimir Horowitz Quotes

Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-born American classical pianist and composer. He was acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, his tone color, and the excitement engendered by his playing. He is recognized as one of the greatest pianists of all time.

✵ 18. September 1903 – 5. November 1989
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Vladimir Horowitz: 6   quotes 1   like

Famous Vladimir Horowitz Quotes

“I liked him [Arthur Rubinstein] as a pianist. He was a good musician and had a fantastic repertoire. He never had a great technique, but certain things he played well. I heard him play some of the Chopin etudes, the easier ones with great panache and I told him I had never heard them played better. He said, "Do you mean it?"”

Vladimir Horowitz

and I said, "Yes, I do mean it."
quoted in Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: his life and music

“I was impressed mostly by Gieseking [Horowitz said in 1987]. He had a finished style, played with elegance, and had a fine musical mind.”

Vladimir Horowitz

quoted in Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: his life and music

“I heard Edwin Fischer, who did not mean much to me. I heard another pianist in Berlin who had a big success and I thought he was awful — Mischa Levitzki. Just fingers, and you cannot listen only to fingers. There is a difference between artist and artisan. Levitzki was an artisan. But Ignaz Friedman, who I admired, was a great artist. He had wonderful fingers and a very personal, individual way of playing, even if some of his ideas were very strange to me. He had no hesitation touching up the music. I got annoyed with him at one concert when he changed the basses in Chopin's F minor Ballade. I didn't like that. For some reason he was happier making records than he was on the stage.”

Vladimir Horowitz

quoted in Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: his life and music

“Of the Russian pianists I like only one, Richter. Gilels did some things well, but I did not like his mannerisms, the way he moved around while he was playing.”

Vladimir Horowitz

quoted in Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: his life and music

“Interesting pianist, but I think he is just a little bit meshuga.”

Vladimir Horowitz

On Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, quoted in Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: his life and music

“Perfection itself is imperfection.”

Vladimir Horowitz

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