The Man and His Music: Memories of Horowitz
Thank you, Martin Bernheimer and Charles Champlin, for the beautiful articles about Vladimir Horowitz on Nov. 7.
After I graduated from high school in New York in 1945, my parents and I spent the summer at a resort called Mt. Washington. Among the guests were Horowitz and Wanda Toscanini, his wife.
Volodya, as we called him, was a cut-up. We teased him because of his many fears. His eyes would pop in partly mock panic at the thought of a possible encounter with a bobcat on the trails.
On Aug. 6, Volodya greeted us with a panic-stricken face, saying the radio news had told of a “beeeg bomb” being dropped on Japan. We all laughed because he had on the funny expression he did when talking of the bobcat. It took a while for us to realize something of a very different nature had happened.
My memory of Horowitz is forever linked with that lovely summer, and that of the A-bomb is forever linked to Horowitz.
RACHEL ROSENTHAL
Los Angeles
Rosenthal is a performance artist.
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