Favorite Encores
	Produced by Thomas Frost, Richard Killough & Paul Myers
	Released on 1987
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
MK 42305 cover [high resolution scan]

K ronomyth x.x: AT WITZ’ END. In a perfect world, we could skip right to the dessert. On Favorite Encores, you can. I’m sure I don’t need to sell you on the merits of Vladimir Horowitz; the man makes love to the piano when he plays. This disc collects eighteen encores recorded between 1963 and 1971. They are, by turns, profound, pretty, passionate and practically on fire. It’s really not a question of what’s best on this disc, but rather what mood you’re in. The lovers of leaping notes will delight in the pieces by Chopin, those looking for something more complex will await the works of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, Debussy is there for the posy-gatherers, Scarlatti for the dusty didacts, Schumann, Mozart and Moszkowski for the romantics. At the end of these ends is Horowitz and his signature Carmen Variations in one of its variations. Assembling eighteen show-stoppers makes for a dazzling display of its own, and on the days when I’m certain that mankind is merely pursuing its own monkey tail with its Florida primaries and Facebook IPOs, the magnetic ghost of Vladimir Horowitz reminds me that we’re capable of achieving great things when we stop chasing our own reflection and seek the reflection of God. Horowitz fearlessly touches that godhead on Schubert’s Impromptu, and for a moment holds that unobtainable ideal of beauty in his hands. But he also captures the humanity of Schumann, the genius of Scriabin, the richness of Rachmaninoff. For me, Favorite Encores is a box of jewels, and I don’t listen to these pieces so much as hold them in my mind and let the light dance off them. In 2004, an expanded reissue was released with two additional Chopin Etudes at the end.

TRACK LISTING

1. Schumann: TOCCATA IN C MAJOR, OP.7    6:21
2. Chopin: ETUDE IN E MAJOR, OP.10, NO.3    3:33
3. Scriabin: ETUDE IN D-SHARP MINOR, OP.8, NO.12    2:13
4. Moszkowski: ETUDE IN A-FLAT MAJOR, OP.72, NO.11    1:27
5. Schumann: ARABESQUE IN C MAJOR, OP.18    7:11
6. Chopin: ETUDE IN G-FLAT MAJOR, OP.10, NO.5 ("BLACK KEY")    1:35
7. Schubert: IMPROMPTU IN G-FLAT MOR, OP.90, NO.3    5:44
8. D. Scarlatti: SONATA IN E MAJOR, L.430    3:14
9. D. Scarlatti: SONATA IN A MAJOR, L.483    3:28
10. Mozart: SONATA IN A MAJOR, K.311 (Excerpt), III-Rondo alla Turca    4:04
11. Rachmaninoff: PRELUDE IN G-SHARP MINOR, OP.32, NO.12    2:58
12. Chopin: ETUDE IN C AMINOR, OP.10, NO.12 ("REVOLUTIONARY")    2:35
13. Scriabin: ETUDE IN C-SHARP MINOR, OP.2, NO.1    3:01
14. Chopin: POLONAISE IN A-FLAT MAJOR, OP.53 ("HEROIC")    6:23
15. Debussy: SERENADE FOR THE DOLL (FROM THE "CHILDREN'S CORNER SUITE")    3:19
16. Rachmaninoff: ETUDE-TABLEAU IN C MAJOR, OP.33, NO.2    2:26
17. Debussy: L'ISLE JOYEUSE    5:53
18. Schumann: "TRÄUMEREI" FROM KINDERSZENEN, OP.15    2:45
19. Horowitz: VARIATIONS ON THEMES FROM BIZET'S CARMEN    3:45
    
    CD reissue bonus tracks
    
20. Chopin: ETUDE IN A FLAT MAJOR, NO.13
21. chopin: ETUDE IN E MINOR, NO.17

CREDITS

VLADIMIR HOROWITZ -- piano
Thumb Design Partnership -- art direction
Iris Schneider -- cover photograph

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