Vladimir Horowitz Returns to Concert Stage

May 9, 1965 - Vladimir Horowitz returned to the concert stage today to touch off a sustained ovation in one of the most dramatic events in the recent history of classical music.

From his first appearance on the stage of Carnegie Hall after an absence of 12 years, until half an hour after he had finished the concert, the auditorium echoed to “bravo” as the audience rose to its feet again and again.

For a time, it seemed the audience would refuse to leave altogether. The house lights were turned on after four encores. But the music lovers stood firm, applauding and yelling. Then the stage lights were turned off. On the dim stage, Horowitz took the last of at least a dozen bows. Finally, the piano was shut, while load groans came from the audience.

Carnegie Hall has known few audiences such as the one that filled all 2,752 seats of its four levels today. By the time Horowitz touched the first note of the Bach-Busoni Toccata in C major to open his program, only four seats were empty in the entire house.  When he finished this number, only one person had to be seated in the orchestra level.

Another illustration of the reverence with which the audience held Horowitz came during the encores, when a number of audience members became infuriated by the clicks of cameras. One photographer was attacked by persons in the audience; the tripod of another was thrown to the red-carpeted floor. A third was threatened when a man in the audience hissed: “Horowitz is more important than your pictures.”The audience did not know, however, that the pianist had granted permission for photographs to be made during the encores. No photographers were allowed in the hall during the regular program. 

The suspense for this performance had begun building during the last two months, when it became known that Horowitz was practicing in secret at Carnegie Hall with the idea of returning to the concert stage he had abandoned because of nervous tension and fatigue. 

There was no trace of anxiety in the pianist’s face, however, when he appeared on stage today in swallowtail and striped pants. 

Men and women who remembered his pre-retirement phase said he seemed much more cheerful than in the years before he stopped playing for the public.

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s