The Man and His Music: Memories of Horowitz

Bernheimer’s remark that Horowitz “could almost make ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ . . . sound like music” is snobbery. The march is music, among the best of its kind.

His statement that “one never saw (Horowitz) at other artists’ concerts” is probably true. However, on a never-to-be-forgotten Sunday afternoon, Dame Myra Hess played the last three Beethoven sonatas and nothing else. I was an usher at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. Horowitz sat alone, at the rear of a box, leaning far forward.

He sat absolutely intent and immobile. He heard an unmatchable performance. He witnessed an ovation among the longest and warmest ever given a pianist. He listened and apparently learned nothing. The last of the great piano salesmen is dead.

FRED SCIFERS

Downey