Chopin: Selected Études (Horowitz) [Score]

Horowitz plays Chopin:    • Horowitz plays Chopin  

▶ Horowitz on Chopin
Horowitz's Chopin is unique. Consistent pedaling, tone blur and excessive rubato are not allowed, but instead, he takes together the clean tone, which is always heard in his performance, and softness.
Pianists' interpretation of Chopin these days tends to pursue the same softness as listening to Debussy. I would pick Cho Seong-jin as the best pianist of this style. In other words, the tone of walking on the clouds, the slow tempo and the juicy rubato are widely recognized interpretations of Chopin by modern pianists.
However, Horowitz didn't compromise on any part of his performance. This was even the case with Chopin, and he gives a whole new interpretation of Chopin that cannot be heard in any existing performance.
For this reason, Horowitz's Chopin was constantly controversial with critics. But rather, because it shows a completely new way of interpretation that cannot be heard in other pianists' performances, it is Chopin that is the repertoire that reveals Horowitz's style most clearly.

▶ Horowitz on Chopin Études
Horowitz's representative Chopin repertoire includes Ballads and Polonaises. He also played many of the études, most of which remain recorded. There are 15 pieces he has played publicly, and only 12 pieces are included in the video.
Études with no performance records are usually short and simple pieces. I think he wouldn't have played it because it didn't fit his style and it wasn't suitable as a concert repertoire.
Op. 25 No. 2 has two performances on record, all of them from the 1940s, so none of them were actually recorded.
Op. 25 No. 6 played once at the only Chopin recital in 1930 and there is no recording either.
Op. 25 No. 9 was played seven times from 1927 to 1945 and has not been performed since. (Since the piece is short and simple, he would have been free to include or subtract it from the recital whenever he wanted to.)
Op. 25 No. 10, also known as an Octave Étude, was played quite often as one of Horowitz's main specialties was the octaves. From 1926, when his European debut was in full swing, to Tokyo in 1983, he played 21 times, and actually there are several audience recordings in the 80s. However, the sound quality of all of them was poor, and above all, at that time, there was a period of severe performance damage due to Horowitz's mental illness, so I could not find any recording that could be included in the video.
Record of Op. 25 No. 11's performance cannot be found except for two records from the 1930s. He is said to have suffered as if his fingers fell when he played this piece. I think it might have something to do with his flat-finger playing.
The question here is that he actually recorded Op. 25 Nos. 2, 4, and 11 right before he died. Why did he suddenly record Chopin études that he hadn't played in the last 40 years? Besides, none of them were released.

-- timestamps --
00:00 Op. 10 No. 3 in E major
03:36 Op. 10 No. 4 in c♯ minor
05:39 Op. 10 No. 5 in G♭ major
07:14 Op. 10 No. 6 in e♭ minor
10:59 Op. 10 No. 8 in F major
13:25 Op. 10 No. 12 in c minor
16:01 Op. 25 No. 1 in A♭ major
18:28 Op. 25 No. 3 in F major
20:00 Op. 25 No. 5 in e minor
23:20 Op. 25 No. 7 in c♯ minor
28:42 Op. 25 No. 12 in c minor
31:11 Trois nouvelles Étude No. 2 in A♭ major