“The encores of Jascha Heifetz”, “The favorites of Rostropovitch”, “Tribute to Horowitz”. Almost terrifying nerve, when a young artist calls himself sacred monsters to sell his album “business card”. Quebecer Maxim Bernard took five years before these scattered pieces captured at Domaine Forget in 2017, grouped under this flattering title, were finally edited by Renaud Loranger at Pentatone. The title Tribute to Horowitz was dared in 2004 by Denis Matsuev with one huge difference: Matsuev had the means. As for the idea of the transfer of the 1986 “Horowitz in Moscow” concert (DG), it is basically abstruse: either we ape Horowitz and it’s stupid, or we do less well, clearly less well – which happens with the ordinary pianism of Maxim Bernard — and the listener, from the two Scarlatti openings, raises legitimate questions of links. The booklet includes a biography of… Vladimir Horowitz. This avoids wondering how the pianist we hear here was able to play at Wigmore Hall one day.
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