Credits:

Akira Eguchi

Description:

In June 1983, at the NHK Hallthe venue for Vladimir Horowitzs first visit to Japanthis piano produced a sound that left the audience in awe [CD75]. This 1912 Steinway, which was indeed a contemporary of Rachmaninoff, is an instrument that represented the pinnacle of the golden age of classical music. Horowitz was the last to carry on this tradition, and one can truly appreciate that it was precisely because such an instrument existed that Rachmaninoffs music could come into being. Rachmaninoffs Preludes, Op. 32, are technically extremely challenging pieces; while some are frequently performed, few recordings include all 13. Furthermore, the Preludes, written in 1917 amid the Russian Revolution, are an extremely rare collection that was never published during his lifetime and which he himself never performed; they convey his anger in a way that is almost painful. Including such masterpieces as D