In this youtube movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1nu4bxR ... re=related

Does anyone know which score Horowitz is playing? I have the Dover score, which seems to differ on some points from this one. For instance: in the middle, calm part of the etude, in my socre, the entire melody in the right hand consists of only octaves. But Horowitz is also playing the 7th in the chord (an extra 'a' in the right hand), along with octaves-melody (see movie at 50-52 sec.) Anyone know which score this is???.. For clarity: in the fragment at 50-52 sec., the Dover score says: (indicating a chord between two brackets)

(f#-f#)(e-e)(f#-f#)(e-e)(d#-d#)...

Horowitz is playing:

(f#-f#)(e-a-e)(f#-f#)(e-a-e)(d#-d#)...


Jos van Riswick

Keep in mind that Horowitz was from a different time when not all performed music had to
be note perfect. He in particular was notorious for changing, skipping and forgetting the
music he played.

Without any criticism about your interesting discovery, and only to explain my thought.
There are tons of these situations in many Horowitz recordings, and IMHO they are the less important things to evaluate his art. The music begin under the fingers of the player, while in the
score there are only billions of silent hypothesis.
All the best,
Sandro

IIRC, there are two slightly different versions of this etude.

And I agree with Sandro just above, it really doesn't make much difference. It is, in fact, what makes Horowitz Horowitz.

I had a bad first impression of Horowitz that I just can't shake - the first recordings I ever heard of him were later ones, so full of sloppiness that I couldn't appreciate the music.

They must have been from his "medicated" period, such as the disastrous 1983 Tokyo recital. His playing after he kicked the medications was truly miraculous. Of course, there was the period immediately before those disastrous recitals where he experimented a great deal. Some call it the "mad scientist" period.

Something like Gould's Inventions period, eh?