Menu

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Vladimir Horowitz Quotes

Without false modesty, I feel that, when I’m on the stage, I’m the king, the boss of the situation.

– Vladimir Horowitz

I loved singing. But can you imagine my voice in an opera house?

– Vladimir Horowitz

My future is in my past and my past is my present. I must now make the present my future.

– Vladimir Horowitz

I was a terrible student. For me, to take a book home was a trial.

– Vladimir Horowitz

The score is not a bible, and I am never afraid to dare. The music is behind those dots.

– Vladimir Horowitz

The most important thing is to make a percussive instrument a singing instrument. Teachers should stress this aspect in their instruction, but it seems that very few of them actually do.

– Vladimir Horowitz

Behind the notes, something different is told, and that’s what the interpreter must find out. He may sit down and play one passage one way and then perhaps exaggerate the next, but, in any event, he must do something with the music. The worst thing is not to do anything.

– Vladimir Horowitz

I tried playing for the public, and I selected music that I thought would be pleasing to them. Times are different now. Today, I play the music I want, and I just try to do my best.

– Vladimir Horowitz

I may play the same program from one recital to the next, but I will play it differently, and because it is always different, it is always new.

– Vladimir Horowitz

As far as practicing is concerned, I usually try to do one to two hours a day. It isn’t good to practice too much, or your playing becomes too mechanical.

– Vladimir Horowitz

Imitation is a caricature. Any imitation. Find out for yourself.

– Vladimir Horowitz

Always there should be a little mistake here and there – I am for it. The people who don’t do mistakes are cold like ice. It takes risk to make a mistake. If you don’t take risk, you are boring.

– Vladimir Horowitz

Scriabin slept with Chopin under his pillow, and I slept with Wagner under mine. I could not concentrate on memorizing Bach fugues, but I had all of ‘Gotterdammerung’ in my fingers.

– Vladimir Horowitz

I am a general. My soldiers are the keys and I have to command them.

– Vladimir Horowitz

Perfection itself is imperfection.

– Vladimir Horowitz

It is important for the musician to learn as much about the composer as possible and to study the music he has written. Then, even a short piece by Brahms or Chopin can be played with much more understanding.

– Vladimir Horowitz

I studied with Felix Blumenfeld, who had studied piano with Anton Rubinstein and composition with Tchaikovsky. Felix, my professor, was the right hand of Anton Rubinstein. Blumenfeld knew his playing by heart, from every angle.

– Vladimir Horowitz

You have to open the music, so to speak, and see what’s behind the notes because the notes are the same whether it is the music of Bach or someone else.

– Vladimir Horowitz

If you want me to play only the notes without any specific dynamics, I will never make one mistake.

– Vladimir Horowitz

For me, the intellect is always the guide but not the goal of the performance. Three things have to be coordinated, and not one must stick out. Not too much intellect because it can become scholastic. Not too much heart because it can become schmaltz. Not too much technique because you become a mechanic.

– Vladimir Horowitz

To be able to produce many varieties of sound, now that is what I call technique, and that is what I try to do. I don’t adhere to any methods, because I simply don’t believe in them. I think each pianist must ultimately carve his own way, technically and stylistically.

– Vladimir Horowitz

My face is my passport.

– Vladimir Horowitz

Life is very busy now. I find that in today’s cities, the public is very tired after working the whole day. When concerts start at eight o’clock, the wife pushes the husband to go to the concert, where some promptly fall asleep!

– Vladimir Horowitz

I must tell you I take terrible risks. Because my playing is very clear, when I make a mistake you hear it. If you want me to play only the notes without any specific dynamics, I will never make one mistake. Never be afraid to dare.

– Vladimir Horowitz

Scriabin, as you know, is a mystic composer. His music is supersensuous, superromantic, and supermysterious. Everything is super; it is all a little overboard. Anyway, my parents were pleased that I played for him.

– Vladimir Horowitz