Wanda Horowitz; Pianist’s Wife

Wanda Toscanini Horowitz, the daughter of conductor Arturo Toscanini who helped guide her husband, Vladimir Horowitz, through his turbulent career as a piano virtuoso, has died. She was 90.

She died at her Manhattan home Friday. The cause of death was not immediately known.

She was born in Milan, the youngest of four children. As a young woman, she served as assistant to her mother, who saw to the maestro’s needs for his concert tours.

When she met Horowitz at age 25, she was smitten. “In the first place, he was good-looking,” she recalled. “And his playing! I heard him play in a house after a concert. He played a Chopin mazurka, and I remember I went home and said, ‘I never heard anybody play a mazurka of Chopin like this.’ ”

After marrying the Russian-born pianist in 1933, she followed her mother’s example and began to care for her husband. She would pack his bags and make sure that he had all the comforts he required while touring, from proper curtains and bedding in his hotel room to lunches of filet of sole and asparagus.

Their marriage lasted 55 years, a period during which Horowitz was hailed as perhaps the greatest pianist of all time.

Shortly before her husband died in 1989, she acknowledged some of the difficult times the couple endured.

They separated briefly in 1949. At one point, Horowitz stopped playing for 12 years.

The couple had one daughter, Sonia, who was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and died at age 40 in 1974.