in his playing is of particular interest in view of the date of his birth, because the level of
mannerisms was particularly high in pianists born before 1880. Rachmaninoff regarded
Hofmann as the greatest pianist ever and dedicated his third piano concerto to Hofmann
who, however, never performed it. Hofmann made a few private Edison cylinders at the
Menlo Park studio in 1886 at the age of ten, thus making him the pianist ever to record.
Hofmann’s performance on disc of the Chopin Berceuse is fast but perfect technically.
His audio/video of the Rachmaninoff C sharp minor prelude is a model of clarity and
control.
Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989) was a Polish/American pianist. He had one of the
longest and most successful performing and recording careers ever, although it was
broken by several long periods away from the concert hall and recording studio. His
playing of Chopin and Liszt included large amounts of mannerisms and rubato. His
playing of Clementi and Scarlatti was highly acclaimed.
Mieczyslaw Horszowski (1892-1993) was born in Lwów, then Austrian occupied Poland,
and was initially taught by his mother, a pupil of Karol Mikuli (himself a pupil of Chopin)
He became a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna at the age of seven (Leschstizky
had studied with Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny). In 1901 he played Beethoven’s piano
concerto no. 1 in Warsaw and soon after toured Europe and the Americas as a child
prodigy. In 1905 the young Horszowski played for Gabriel Fauré and met Saint-Saëns in
Nice. In 1911 he put his performing career on hold but later returned to the concert stage
and settled in Milan after the First World War. After the Second World War he gave
chamber music recitals with Pablo Casals, Alexander Schneider, Joseph Szigeti and the
Budapest Quartet. From 1940 he lived in New York City. In 1957 he gave a cycle of
Beethoven’s entire solo works for piano in New York and in 1960 of Mozart’s piano
sonatas. His repertoire included Honegger, d’Indy, Martinu, Stravinsky, Szymanowski
and Villa-Lobos. He taught at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, counting among his
pupils Richard Goode, Anton Kuerti, Murray Perahia, Peter Serkin and Steven DeGroote.
Horszowski had the longest career in the history of the performing arts and continued
performing until shortly before his death in Philadelphia shortly before his 101st birthday.
He was widely recorded and his playing of Chopin right up to the last included the
various nineteenth-century mannerisms.
Leslie Howard (1948- ) is an Australian pianist and composer, resident in London. In
1986, to mark the centenary of Liszt’s death, Howard gave a series of ten Liszt recitals in
London’s Wigmore Hall which consisted of the final versions of all Liszt’s original solo
piano output. Following this, Howard recorded all Liszt’s piano works, including
arrangements and earlier versions, and all Liszt’s works for piano and orchestra. The
series ran to 95 CDs and the last CD was issued on 22 Octiber 1999, Liszt’s birthday.
Subsequent CDs have been issued as further Liszt manuscripts have come to light.
Howard has ensured textual accuracy and absence of mannerisms in his recordings of
Liszt. He is active as a recording and concert artist, composer, editor and arranger.
Raoul Koczalski (1884-1948) was a Polish pianist and composer. He gave concerts at
the age of seven, and at nine he was playing in major European cities. He studied at the