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The Papers of Vladimir and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz.

 Collection
Call Number: MSS 55

Scope and Contents

The Papers of Vladimir Horowitz and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz (1784-1991) reflect the life and work of the legendary pianist, Vladimir Horowitz, and of his wife, Wanda Toscanini Horowitz. The Papers chronicle Horowitz's life and illustrious seventy-one year career from Kiev to New York.

The Papers include correspondence, programs, photographs, clippings, scrapbooks, contracts, royalty statements, awards, certificates, jewelry, and a wide range of memorabilia. Included too are manuscript and published music, autograph letters of famous composers, and original works of art from the Horowitzes' private collection. The Papers document the Horowitzes' close association with such figures as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rudolf Serkin, Arthur Rubinstein, Nathan Milstein, Gregor Piatigorsky, Olin Downes, Isaac Stern, Arturo Toscanini, and Bruno Walter. The music includes holograph manuscripts of works by Horowitz, Poulenc, and Prokofiev. There is also much published music with markings by Horowitz and/or inscriptions from composers and friends.

Very important are the 218 unpublished live recordings on acetate disc of Horowitz's Carnegie Hall recitals of the 1940s and 50s. Horowitz had these 12 and 16 inch discs made for personal use. They are cataloged and housed at Yale University's Historical Sound Recordings Collection, where they have been copied unto tape for preservation purposes and are available for researchers. Mrs. Horowitz also donated a treasure of items pertaining to her father, Arturo Toscanini. These include many photographs, scrapbooks, correspondence, and memorabilia. There are also 324 recordings by Toscanini or Toscanini and Horowitz made by the Franklin Mint Society, Musica Amica, RCA Artistique, RCA Camden, RCA Victor/Red Seal, RCA Victrola, RCA Victrola (Italy), RCA Victor-Japan, and Columbia. These are also housed and cataloged at Yale University's Historical Sound Recordings Collection.

Dates

  • 1784-1991

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials chiefly in English and Russian.

Conditions Governing Access

The Papers are open to qualified researchers by appointment. There are no restricted materials in the collection. Please contact the Special Collections staff to schedule an appointment. Some of the materials may be stored at the Library's off-campus shelving facility, so researchers should allow at least two business days to have the appropriate boxes paged.

Conditions Governing Use

The Papers of Vladimir and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz are the physical property of the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University. Copyrights belong to the composers and authors, or their legal heirs and assigns.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Papers of Vladimir and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz are the generous gift of Mr. and Mrs. Horowitz. The collection was presented to the Music Library in twelve installments from 1986 to 1992.

Arrangement

In 9 series as follows: I. Correspondence. II. Programs and Program Notes. III. Photographs. IV. Clippings. V. Scrapbooks. VI. Contracts, Royalty and Box Office Statements, Expenses. VII. Items from the Library of Vladimir Horowitz. VIII. Awards. IX. Miscellaneous Items.

Extent

69 Linear Feet (164 boxes)

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/music.mss.0055

Additional Description

Abstract

Correspondence and other papers, photographs, and additional materials by and about the Russian-American pianist Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989) and his wife Wanda Toscanini Horowitz (1907-1998)

Biographical / Historical

Vladimir Horowitz (in Russian, Gorowitz) was born in Berdichev, near Kiev, on October 1, 1903. His father, Simeon, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Sophie , a pianist. It was Sophie who gave Volodya (as he was affectionately called), his sister, Regina, and brothers Jacob and George, their first music lessons. When he was ten years old, Horowitz entered the Kiev Conservatory where he studied with Vladimir Puchalsky, Sergei Tarnowsky, and Felix Blumenfeld.

At first, Horowitz aspired to be a composer, and as a teenager produced several compositions (the holograph manuscript of one of these works, Etude-fantasie es-dur op. 4 : Les Vagues (dedicated to Tarnovsky), is among the Papers). But revolution and the hardships of life under the Bolsheviks intervened, forcing him to abandon his dream of becoming a composer (his dazzling piano transcriptions written later in his career attest to his compositional talents). With his father's successful business and most of their possessions, including the piano, seized by the Bolsheviks, and the Horowitzes living together with all of their relatives in poverty, Vladimir Horowitz was determined to use his phenomenal talent as a pianist to help his family. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1920, giving his first public performance in Kiev on May 30 of that year. His paternal uncle Alexander, a pupil of Scriabin, became his first manager. In 1922, Uncle Alexander was replaced as manager by the state, which then dictated the careers of Horowitz, his sister, and his good friend Nathan Milstein. From 1922 to 1925 he performed extensively in Kharkov, Kiev, Moscow, and Leningrad, and his reputation as a virtuoso grew.

After state management, Horowitz's career was overseen by Alexander Merovitch, who helped Horowitz leave Russia in 1925. The decision to leave was difficult, and the only family member he was to ever see again was his father, once, in 1934. His first performance outside of Russia was in Berlin, on January 2, 1926. From 1926 to 1927 he gave sixty-nine concerts throughout Europe, and became immensely popular with the public. He studied briefly with Alfred Cortot in Paris, in 1928. Horowitz switched management to Arthur Judson, and on January 12, 1928, made his American debut with Sir Thomas Beecham and the New York Philharmonic playing Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. His debut was sensational; the audience was amazed by his performance. Horowitz's career took off: he performed for sold-out concerts, commanded the highest fees, and became universally celebrated. In 1933 Mr. Horowitz performed Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic as part of a Beethoven cycle. The concert was a great success, and he won the admiration of Toscanini, whose daughter, Wanda, he married on December 21, 1933, in Milan. Their daughter, Sonia, was born in 1934.

The Horowitzes came to the United States in 1939, and he became a citizen in 1942. He gave the world premiere of Samuel Barber's Piano Sonata on December 9, 1949, in Havana. Horowitz began a twelve-year retirement from concert life after his Silver Jubilee concert on February 25, 1953, during which time he made a few recordings. Horowitz made his triumphant return to the concert stage at Carnegie Hall on May 9, 1965. Throngs of eager fans stood in the ticket line overnight, and the tickets were sold out in two hours.

Horowitz's televised recital in September 1968 was a huge success, allowing viewers across the country to see him in performance. After a retirement from 1969 to 1974, during which Horowitz made and reissued recordings, he gave the first piano recital at the new Metropolitan Opera House on November 17, 1974. On January 8, 1978, he celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his American debut at Carnegie Hall playing Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3 with Eugene Ormandy and the New York Philharmonic. He performed in Europe for the first time in thirty-one years in a recital in London's Royal Festival Hall on May 22, 1982, and he played a series of recitals for the first time in Japan in 1983. In the following years he toured Europe and Japan, performed in the United States, and made recordings, videos, telecasts, and films. Horowitz made an historic return to the Soviet Union after a sixty-one year absence in 1986, and for this was later awarded the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Reagan.

Horowitz performed at the White House for Presidents Hoover, Carter, and Reagan. President Bush bestowed upon him the National Medal of Arts in 1989.

On November 1, 1989, Horowitz made what was to be The Last Recording. He died suddenly, on November 5, 1989, of a heart attack. After the funeral in New York, his body was flown to Milan where he was buried in the Toscanini family plot.

Subjects

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Register to the Papers of Vladimir and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz
Status
Edited Full Draft
Author
Compiled by Adrienne Scholtz
Date
1996-2007
Description rules
Finding Aid Prepared According To Local Music Library Descriptive Practices
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Gilmore Music Library Repository

https://guides.library.yale.edu/MusicSpecialCollections
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