Here's something you might be interested in.
I wasn't familiar with the Horowitz transcription of the Stars and Stripes Forever until New Orleans Opera Director, Todd Simmons, put it up on Facebook.
It is a fireworks display of virtuosic, finger numbing, piano playing. I fully expected the piano to start smoking and be consumed in flames. "Oh the humanity. Oh the humanity!"
Russian-born Vladamir Horowitz was one of the premier pianist in the world from, let's say, his US debut in 1928 until his death in 1989.
Horowitz's personal life was something of a disaster. He married Toscanini's daughter in 1933. He was Jewish, she was Catholic. He didn't speak Italian, she didn't speak Russian. They settled on French as their common language. She died of a drug overdose.
The pianist Arthur Rubinstein claimed everyone knew and accepted that Horowitz was gay.
I guess so Arthur because you just "outed" him. I'm not sure everyone accepted it.
Horowitz claimed he wasn't gay and joked that there are three types of pianists, Jewish pianists, homosexual pianists, and bad pianist.
Horowitz also became paranoid about living up to his own reputation and often had to be forced onto stage at a performance.
No matter his personal issues, this arrangement of Stars and Stripes Forever rocks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeGTPE1Z_qs
I wasn't familiar with the Horowitz transcription of the Stars and Stripes Forever until New Orleans Opera Director, Todd Simmons, put it up on Facebook.
It is a fireworks display of virtuosic, finger numbing, piano playing. I fully expected the piano to start smoking and be consumed in flames. "Oh the humanity. Oh the humanity!"
Russian-born Vladamir Horowitz was one of the premier pianist in the world from, let's say, his US debut in 1928 until his death in 1989.
Horowitz's personal life was something of a disaster. He married Toscanini's daughter in 1933. He was Jewish, she was Catholic. He didn't speak Italian, she didn't speak Russian. They settled on French as their common language. She died of a drug overdose.
The pianist Arthur Rubinstein claimed everyone knew and accepted that Horowitz was gay.
I guess so Arthur because you just "outed" him. I'm not sure everyone accepted it.
Horowitz claimed he wasn't gay and joked that there are three types of pianists, Jewish pianists, homosexual pianists, and bad pianist.
Horowitz also became paranoid about living up to his own reputation and often had to be forced onto stage at a performance.
No matter his personal issues, this arrangement of Stars and Stripes Forever rocks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeGTPE1Z_qs