Vladimir Horowitz – The Complete Original Jacket Collection is a 70 CD boxed set featuring many of the recordings of the pianist Vladimir Horowitz. The collection contains recordings from 1928 to his final recording session just four days before his death in 1989. Horowitz's recordings for RCA Red Seal and Columbia Masterworks/Sony Classical are included in the set. Recordings that Horowitz made for RCA's European affiliate, HMV, are not included. Nor are the recordings he made with Deutsche Grammophon from 1985 to 1989. It is one of the largest issues in the Original Jacket Collection series, and supersedes two smaller Original Jacket issues of Horowitz material.
Overview
The box includes 70 CDs, all of which are stored in individual sleeves. Also included is a 200-page booklet which includes track listings, recording dates, an essay by producer Jon Samuels, and a chronology of Horowitz's life.[2] The original LP album format is used along with the original album front and back covers and content sequencing.[3][4] Liner notes are included only in cases where they appeared on the back covers of the original LPs.
Horowitz's first audio recordings were made on 78rpm disks. After the LP came into use in the late 1940s, all of Horowitz's recordings were issued in this format. In addition, until the early 1950s, some of Horowitz's recordings were issued on 78rpm, 45rpm, and LP. Many, but not all, of the pianist's older recordings were transferred to LP.
Those 78rpm recordings which were never issued on LP are contained on a separate disc with newly created cover art. Several of the recordings which post-date the demise of the LP use the original CD covers instead of LP covers. The set also contains two previously unissued recitals: March 5, 1951 at Carnegie Hall; and November 12, 1967 at Whitman Auditorium, Brooklyn College.
The recordings from 1959 onward are in stereophonic sound, and from 1981 onward the recordings were made digitally. Previously issued material uses the best existing transfers, while the new material is newly remastered.
On October 1, 2010 - the 107th anniversary of Horowitz's birth - The Complete Original Jacket Collection won Gramophone's award for best CD reissue.[5]
Chopin: Sonata in B-flat Minor, Op. 35 / Ballade in G Minor, Op. 23 / Nocturne, Op. 15, No. 2
Liszt: Au bord d’une source / Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 in D-flat Major
1947–1950
RCA Victor Red Seal
13
LM-1718
Beethoven: Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, Op. 73 “Emperor”
RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra / Fritz Reiner, Conductor
1952
RCA Victor Red Seal
14
LM-1707
Chopin
Ballade in A-flat Major, Op. 47 / Ballade in F Minor, Op. 52 / Etude in E Major, Op. 10, No. 3 / Impromptu in A-flat Major, Op. 29 / Nocturne in F Minor, Op. 55, No. 1 / Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20
1949–1952
RCA Victor Red Seal
15
LM-9021
Mendelssohn & Liszt
Mendelssohn: Variations serieuses, Op. 54 / Wedding March & Variations (arr. Liszt – Horowitz)
Liszt: Valse Oubliee No. 1 / Sonetto del Petrarcha No. 104 / Racokzy March
1946–1951
RCA Victor Red Seal
16a & 16b
LM-6014
25th Anniversary Recital
Schubert: Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960
Chopin: Nocturne in E Minor, Op. 72, No. 1 / Scherzo in B Minor, Op. 20 / Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2
Beethoven: Sonata in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Moonlight"
Schubert: Impromptu in A-flat Major, D. 899, No. 4 / Impromptu in F Minor, D. 935, No. 1 / Impromptu in A-flat Major, D. 935, No. 2 / Impromptu in E-flat Major, D. 899, No. 2
1972–1973
Columbia Masterworks
50
M-31381
Beethoven: Appassionata & Waldstein Sonatas
Sonata in F Minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata" / Sonata in C Major, Op. 53 "Waldstein"
1972
Columbia Masterworks
51
M-32932
New Recordings of Chopin
Mazurka in F-sharp Minor, Op. 59, No. 3 / Mazurka in C-sharp Minor, Op. 50, No. 3 / Mazurka in D-flat Major, Op. 30, No. 3 / Mazurka in F Minor, Op. 7, No. 3 / Mazurka in E Minor, Op. 41, No. 2 / Mazurka in D Major, Op. 33, No. 2 / Etude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 10, No. 4 / Etude in E Major, Op. 10, No. 3 / Etude in C Minor, Op. 10, No. 12 / Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2 / Polonaise in A Major, Op. 40, No. 1
1968 / 1972-1973
Columbia Masterworks
52a & 52b
M2-34256
Concert of the Century In Celebration of the 85th Anniversary of Carnegie Hall
New York Philharmonic / Oratorio Society / Lyndon Woodside, Conductor / Vladimir Horowitz, Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Assisting Vocalists
1976
Columbia Masterworks
53a & 53b
Horowitz (Compilation of posthumously issued Columbia Recordings)
Scarlatti: Sonata in G Major, K. 547 / Sonata in B Minor, K. 197 / Sonata in F-sharp Minor, K. 25 / Sonata in D Minor, K. 5 / Sonata in G Major, K. 201 / Sonata in C Minor, K. 303 / Sonata in F-sharp Major, K. 319 / Sonata in G Major, K. 260
Bach-Busoni: Chorale Prelude “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” BWV 639+
Haydn: Sonata No. 48 in C Major
Clementi: Rondo from Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 12, No. 2 / Adagio Sostenuto in F major, Op. 44 Book 1, No. 14, from Gradus ad Parnassum / Rondo from Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 25, No. 3 / Adagio from Sonata in A major, Op. 50, No. 1
Beethoven: Sonata in A Major, Op. 101
Mendelssohn: Etude in A Minor, Op. 104b, No. 3
Chopin: Etude in A-flat Major, from Trois Nouvelles etudes / Etude No. 6 in E flat minor, Op. 10, No. 6 / Prelude in D flat major, Op. 28, No. 15
Liszt: Consolation in E major, S. 172, No. 2 / Liszt: Scherzo and March, S. 177
Debussy: Prelude: La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune / Etude: Pour les arpèges composés
+Limited release on Christmas LP as promotional tie-in with Goodyear Tire in 1969
1962–1972
Columbia Masterworks
54
The Private Collection, Volume 1
Bach: Toccata in C Minor, BWV. 911
Clementi: Sonata in A Major, Op. 33, No. 1 / Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 24, No. 2 Allegro con brio / Sonata in C Major, Op. 34, No. 1 Un poco andante, quasi allegretto
Mendelssohn: Song without Words in B-flat Major, Op. 67, No. 3
Chopin: Fantasy in F Minor, Op. 49 / Polonaise in C-sharp Minor, Op. 26, No. 1 / Mazurka in B Minor, Op. 30, No. 2
Liszt: Consolations, Nos. 4 and 5, S. 172
Rachmaninoff: Etude-Tableaux in C Minor, Op. 39 No.7
1945–1950
RCA Victor Red Seal
55
The Private Collection, Volume 2
Debussy: Etudes, Book I: Nos. 4, 1, & 6
Prokofiev: Intermezzo and Valse lente from the ballet Cinderella
Poulenc: Intermezzo No 2 in D-flat Major / Novelette No 1 in C Major