Evenings with Horowitz: A Personal Portrait (Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)How do you get nearly exclusive access to one of the most elusive and reclusive artists in the world?You put yourself in a very submissive position, you grovel, you kowtow to him.That's what author David Dubal did, through most of their relationship, and this book is an interesting look at that.

To be blunt about it, Horowitz--by Dubal's own reckoning--was spoiled, self-centered, and manipulative.He was also magnetic, fascinating and capable of great charm, although he seemed to use it mainly when he wanted to get something from Dubal.The two men used each other to a degree here--Dubal as a conduit to the outside world and Horowitz as profile-booster and fodder for his radio program on WNCN--but that's the only way relationships like these can happen, and we owe something to Dubal for lifting the curtain of what went on inside the maestro's house during the last years of his life.It's a glimpse we would not have had, had Dubal not ingratiated himself into the Horowitz's lives.This book isn't on a par with Joseph Horowitz's (no relation) fascinating study on Claudio Arrau, largely because JH and Arrau's conversations were more of a two-way street.Still, this is a fascinating book, dealing with a wide range of subjects, from Horowitz's views of Rubinstein and Rachmaninoff, to his feelings about his homeland, to his reverence for Mozart, whom he describes as "his Number One."We learn that wife Wanda managed every aspect of Horowitz's career except the artistic.NO ONE made artistic decisions for Horowitz, though if the author is to believed (if), Horowitz did take some repertoire suggestions from Dubal.We also learn, not surprisingly, that for all his culture Horowitz was a very limited man in many respects, unable to function even in simple ways in society without help, and ignorant of much of art outside his own realm.

As the book goes on, despite some touching and rewarding moments, we gradually see a resentment building and finally bubbling over because of the way both Vladimir and, even more, Wanda, tried to control and manipulate Dubal.Aside from a jacket blurb for a book, Horowitz never favored Dubal with any reciprocity for the favors Dubal did him.His self-centeredness can't be attributed merely to his being a "genius"; the pianist was reportedly fawned on non-stop as a small child before he even played a note, and grew up with a sense of entitlement.In short, he was spoiled rotten, though in fairness he did suffer hardships, mostly at the hands of Soviet authorities.Marrying Toscanini's daughter probably didn't help things, either.Horowitz could be so incapable of reaching out--or unwilling to reach out--to anyone, that his own daughter eventually committed suicide as a result of his indifference to her.Even his marriage to Wanda appeared passionless.Dubal discusses much-speculated homosexuality but concludes Horowitz was probably never intimate with members of either gender--his feelings and emotions poured out through the piano, and were meant for an audience of thousands, not an intimate one or two.(Ironic, then, that Dubal later bemoans the death of intimacy and the rise of mass-communion with audiences in the afterward of his book.)

"Evenings With Horowiz"--the 2004 edition, at least--comes with a compact disc awkwardly fastened with superduperglue onto the inside back cover.I practically had to rip the cover off to get the disc out.It contains about an hour's worth of conversations with Horowitz that Dubal used on his WNCN radio broadcasts.Horowitz is fascinating, though a little hard to understand at times; Dubal is infuriating as a narrator.Both here and on his "Golden Age of the Piano" DVD (which I've also reviewed) he talkss l o w l ya n dd e l i b e r a t e l y, as though he were addressing a kindergarten class.His six minute intro, before Horowitz starts talking, seems to go on for days.Being that he had his conversations with the maestro late at night, I wonder how Volodya stayed awake.

On a totally irrelevant side note, this book's cover has to be the ugliest I have ever seen.I could do better with a copy of Pagemaker and an hour of computer time.What art director "directed" this illegible feast of gaudy fonts?

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Product Description:
Evenings with Horowitz details a special friendship between two musicians. The book is a vivid account of their mutual passion for music and the piano. It reflects the struggles and triumphs of Vladimir Horowitz, a flaming genius who was also insecure and fearful of old age and the loss of his powers. In his conversations with the author, the Maestro reveals the agony and the ecstasy of a pianist's career and his love and awe for the great composers whose music he played."Dubal, broadcaster, concert pianist, and faculty member at Juilliard, draws upon his knowledgeable background to produce a fascinating portrait of the brilliant and electrifying pianist Vladimir Horowitz ... Discussions ensued on repertoire, stylistic interpretations, tastes of audiences, other famous pianists, favored composers, and even such non-musical topics as care of animals, modern-day presidents, and American youth. Dubal provides a rare and intimate glimpse of Horowitz and illustrates the precariousness of accommodating the temperament of a genius." - Library Journal

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