“The Magic Of Horowitz,” delves into the story behind Horowitz’ virtuoso 1986 Moscow concert.
The documentary weaves together concert footage, including intimate close-ups of Horowitz’ agile hands interspersed with the emotional audience reactions, historical context and original interviews with Horowitz’ former manager Peter Gelb, as well as composer Tatjana Komarova, violoncellist Alina Kudelevic and contemporary piano virtuosos Martha Argerich, Daniil Trifonov and Sophie Pacini.
Recent meetings between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev provided hope that the Cold War was coming to an end, and Horowitz’ return to Russia was seen as a way to help open the door between the two superpowers.
The concerts marked the first time in years that one of the world’s leading romantic pianists performed live on stage. Horowitz put together a demanding program featuring works by leading classical composers Scarlatti, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Schubert, Liszt, and Chopin, selected for their private meaning to him.
"The Magic of Horowitz" spotlights this magnificent and historic performance.
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The series is available for streaming simultaneously on all station-branded PBS platforms, including pbs.org and the PBS Video App, which is available on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Chromecast.
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Credits:
GREAT PERFORMANCES is produced by THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET. John Walker is senior producer, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer. “The Magic of Callas” and “The Magic of Horowitz” are productions of Sounding Images in co-production with C Major Entertainment and ZDF/ARTE. Produced by Claus Wischmann, "The Magic of Callas" is directed by Holger Preusse; "The Magic of Horowitz" is co-directed by Preusse and Philipp Quiring.
