Horowitz was 84 years old when he performed this beautiful piece in Vienna. It's a lesson for those who, nowadays, think that a person over 50 or 60 can't do anything else.

I find it _so_ ironic that the most calm and emotionless looking pianist is actually playing with the _most_ emotion and love put into the piece...Like...how??

My grandfather died today. This is my favorite piece and I am listening to it to say goodbye to my favourite person.

Exquisite 🕊️ In an interview once, Mike Wallace asked him, "Maestro, what is it that makes your playing so special?" Horowitz replied, "I love every single note."

After his death, his famous Steinway toured alone to be shown and played in Steinway shops. I had the privilege to get a 20 min slot when the piano was in Frankfurt, Germany, and was very uncomfortable with the extremely soft keys which had been custom made for the artist. Almost impossible for me to play it being used to the standard weight of Steinway keyboards. This however explains why he could play so delicately with this extravant technique: his long fingers resting almost flat on the keys. Very special.

He was 85 years old at that time.

Nobody plays today as Horowitz played. His sense of touch and expression are unequaled. Horowitz made every piece his own. Just magnificent. Enough said.

He never made mistakes. The piano just didn’t understand him. We are so lucky to have these recordings. Thank you Mr Horowitz for improving the world for as long as these recordings survive.❤

Horowitz's hands are extraordinary. When so many modern performers' fingers leap and dance over the keys, he seems to be picking up the music that's already there. What a still place he is in.

He doesn’t seem like playing the piano, seems like he’s just petting it and the piano speaks by itself as if a cat purrs when it is petted. Only if my first language were English, i would be able to describe this better😢 (And thanks to twoset&sophie for introducing this wonderful piece!)

I love how he appears to be doing almost nothing, like a bank manager behind a desk checking an application for a mortgage. And yet the sounds coming out of the piano are utterly astonishing.

This is my favorite performance of Horowitz. Whenever I listen to his performance of Schubert, I feel very comforted. A ray of light in a painful life. Thanks to his performance, I continue to live my life.

Somewhere, Schubert is smiling.

PLEASE READ IF YOU ARE LEARNING THIS PIECE: I posted another comment asking about what he does on 0:24, since he strays from the sheet music and adds his personal bit of “dissonance” very nicely. I spoke with my teacher and we came to the conclusion that it is F natural and D natural in the left hand and B flat, D natural, A flat, and the top B flat on the right hand. Enjoy! (Please like so that people learning this piece will see this comment)

I personally love how curious Horowitz looks while playing the piano. He observes and seems pleased with the delicate sound that is produced when his finger touches a note. It is so precise and so intentionally on every note and every pause. No one plays the piano like Horowitz. An icon of classical music.

This performance is just breathtaking. His pianissimos are absolutely exquisite. It feels incredibly personal, almost as if from a lifetime dedicated to music, it has become such a part of him that he's offering us himself through this piece. One of the most touchingly beautiful things I've ever heard.

thank you sophie oui oui for showing me this! like snowflakes dancing on the wind

Had the privilege and immense satisfaction of hearing this genius live twice. Once in Severance Hall (Cleveland) for a return after many years of silence. The recital lasted almost 4 hours: encores, encores, encores. The public was wild, people were crying with joy when he appeared and with sadness when he signalled 'enough'. One of the most memorable moment of my life.

If this recording isn’t played at my funeral I’m not going

The best performance of this piece ever, and one of the greatest piano performances of all time

Came from TwoSet's video. What a masterpiece. The melody is like an endless river, full of emotion.

Three people I have met, whom I will never forget: Vladimir Horowitz after a concert at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, c. mid 70's. I forgot the other two.

I am in tears hearing him play so heavenly and intens beautiful. Never heard shubert like this. Wish I had seen Horowitz live! Love his playing!

Classical music never goes out of style. It's an important part of our cultural heritage, always appreciated and celebrated.

whenever i listen to this play, i feel like i'm at the last chapter of my life, silently remembering past days with a slight sense of nostalgia, but without longing for going back. it's lonely but not sad. peaceful, meditative, and simply beautiful.

It’s like he and the piano are reminiscing of times long past. He merely rests his hands on an old friend and they talk, like a final farewell. Peaceful, beautiful.

Little did the audience realize they were about to witness the finest performance of controlled emotion on the piano realized by any artist or composer ever. A lucky bunch to have the opportunity to have a first row seat to what has to be the most touching piece and performance I’ve ever heard. Bravo Mr. Horowitz. Bravo

Oh, God, what a soulful performance of Schubert, as if music is born from nothingness and takes possession of the soul, filling it with bright joy and the dream of bliss.

To me this is the best interpretation of this piece. Much slower but with perfect sound control.

This is absolutely ethereal.

What I love about Horowitz is that he gently, charms music out of the piano as if it is Aladdins lamp, without contorting like a snake charmer or pulling faces like clown. He is concentrating on the music and is not trying to convince his audience, with weird mannerisms, of his genius.

brings me back to when my grandfather used to play this in his study. Brings up such powerful emotions.

Horowitz just understands this piece best. It has such a calm and sad melody, it sounds like a profound story someone tells.

One of the most beautiful pieces of Schubert which brings me to tears sometimes. A feeling of total surrender, deep peace and no movement, everything is forgiven, you may be exactly who you are, and where you are. A total release of all need to struggle on the level of the soul.

I was a member of the National Fraternity of Student Musicians as a child, and auditioned under the great Horowitz, (probably about age 8 or 9, (I don't remember the date without looking it up) but I was too young to understand what a great privilege it was until much later in my life. I still have the scorecard signed by him in my collection of various treasures. My parents took us to various concerts by the great performers of the time. Young, I'd often get a bit antsy but was rapt during the ballets! Later, as a young adult, I performed with orchestras both with the flute and guest artist on the piano. Later I performed as a singer and entertainer in nightclubs playing the usual standards, which I learned by ear. Now, I'm back to enjoying these great famous classical numbers again.

This piece means a lot to me Can't stop weeping tears every time hearing it and thinking about how short Schubert's life is :"(

This is why people would camp out overnight, in the rain, to buy a ticket to a Horowitz concert.

Without hesitation the best interpretation.

Just listened again and clearly discern that no one else captures Schubert's piece nearly as well as Horowitz. This performance is brilliant and perfection beyond words. We are very fortunate that we have this to enjoy forever now that Horowitz is gone. Guy in Columbia Mississippi

魂の声を、そのまま鍵盤に映しとったような音の数々。どんなに時代が変わろうとも、人の心を動かす稀代の名演奏だと思う。

I only had the good fortune to hear Horowitz in concert twice. The first time was his last appearance in the Los Angeles area at the Hollywood Bowl before his first retirement. The second time was his first appearance in the Los Angeles area at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena after coming out of retirement about twenty years later. So I actually attended two of his concerts back to back, but twenty years apart. He was wonderful!

I Imagine Schubert ringing the church bell to cherish this outstanding performance of this humble man ...

Это чудо.Такое проникновенное исполнение гениальной музыки.Вечная память Шуберту и Великому Пианисту.

I'm a non-musician person and don't have enough knowledge about it but I came here because I watched twosets' video and I don't understand why this struck me the most.. it sure is interesting how his hands are just resting on the keys cause some people I saw, express it through their faces, body, and their hands by moving but everything in this piece is so good and this makes me cry.. everything about it.. it touched every part of my soul.

this man has an amazing amount of love in his heart

Horowitz literally plays as if he were in love with the piano. Maybe he was, it is absolutely perfect. The new generation, like Anastasia Huppmann and Lang Lang, are brilliant. Their technique is astonishing. Yet, they still cannot best pianists like Rubinstein and Horowitz. Not yet. They are virtuoso players and a joy to listen to. Good, even brilliant as they are, they still have to learn the quiet reflection that so enriched the performances of the old masters.

I feel like without all the expressions and dramatic faces other pianists pull, this performance is showing us pure, raw emotion through a lifetime of dedication to music, no showbiz, no clown faces, just him and his piano making beautiful music together

In my opinion, this is just the best interpretation of this masterpiece. I've seen them all, but Horowitz... I dunno if it's only the "sound" or the fact that he doesn't need to swing around to produce such an effect. I did try to listen to other interpretation eyes closed, but in reality this one for my tastes is just gold rain coming from heaven, and i cry every time I listen it. Rest in peace.

Total control over the dynamics, phrasing, rubato, technique, pedaling, everything that makes great music. It's breathtaking!

この演奏で私はいつも胸がいっぱいになる どんな言葉よりも私の心を揺さぶり慰めてくれる ホロヴィッツとピアノに深く感謝します

This is an amazing performance. I've listened to it 1000 times, it never ceases to amaze me!

The most amazing part of this recording are the bells that begin to play outside at 2:20. Simply sublime. They could not help but play with him. This is why Horowitz is the master. He inspires the music that is inside of everyone to come alive with his playing. Bravo, forever Maestro.

He seems to be playing this in heaven, and somehow communicating it to our earthly ears.

sublime interprétation de M. Horowitz qui nous transporte dans un si bel univers musical -merci beaucoup ❣

This rendition of this beautiful Schubert impromptu is so full of emotion and so powerful and calm at the same time. I find it difficult to put into words. Simply the best recording of this piece I have ever heard. I absolutely love his tempo.

From Horowitz's wikipedia page - Horowitz's hand position was unusual in that the palm was often below the level of the key surface. He frequently played chords with straight fingers, and the little finger of his right hand was often curled up until it needed to play a note; to Harold C. Schonberg, "it was like a strike of a cobra."[1] For all the excitement of his playing, Horowitz rarely raised his hands higher than the piano's fallboard. His body was immobile, and his face seldom reflected anything other than intense concentration.

I like how he plays music. It's like the music is just playing out of the piano. I don't actually know how to put it, but he plays so smoothly. And the fact that he can play without much movement makes it even better because it's like we could only focus on the piece.

Minimum. That's how I would characterize that performance. He does not scream, he does, in fact, through the language of depth. He is not silent either. No mimics, no shaking of the head with hair sufficiently long for shallow drama, no desire to be necessarily liked. That happens when passion survives ego. And again, that happens to only a few. Horowitz's play is not an interpretation, he is, at that point, beyond the highest level of interpretation. His play is his own ode to what Schubert felt when he wrote the piece.

Это исполнение -мудрость возроста ,без внешних проявлений эмоций,все в музыке.Мастер!

When Horowitz plays, time, space and matter is inexistent and everything is neutralized by so much sincerity and simplicity. God bless his soul.

This song gives me comfort and solace ,and heals my tired mind and sorrow , and melts away my suffering and grief .

I've been listening to this amazing performance so many times, that I'm actually missing the 'church bells' (around 2.20) when I listen to a different one 😅. For me this video is one of KZfaq's gems...

Words fail me to express the beauty of this performance!!!!

There is a microscopic delay before the third beat of the second bar that wraps the performance firmly around my attention and doesn't let go until the piece is at an end. Beyond mastery!

A student admirer said to Horowitz, ' I'd give my life to play like you'. Horowitz replied 'I did'.

Можно ли словами выразить наслаждение от услышанного!!! Такого пианиста природа повторить не в состоянии. Услышав, поверишь в божественность миросоздания.

Makes my spirit soar every time I hear the Maestro perform this divine Serenade! Sincere thanks. Again!

I Heard every version of this impromptu and this is my favorite at all!! No rush, calm and deep and meditational feeling! I’m sure schubert should be agree with me. All the interpreting over the world make of this piece a running champion of who is more fast but no! This is the right tempo for this impromptu! Noting more, nothing less! Thanks Horowitz 🙏 so deeper! So intense! What a beautiful soul!

Fabulous. Horowitz was the best, we miss him. Thank you.

Jak citlivě a něžně podáno - jako pohlazení od dítěte... Neuvěřitelné s ohledem na jeho věk.... Díky za nahrávku a pozdravuji všechny z Rakovnicka v České republice.

The first 10 seconds listening to this my teardrops are just flowing. This was so beautiful. Horowitz has no equal.

Un immense merci à Schubert comme à Horowitz de nous faire entendre une musique si magnifiquement douce et raffinée! Notre monde en a tellement besoin...

This is pure magic...brings tears every time I hear it...

경건한마음으로 삶을되돌아보게하네요 워낙좋아하는곡이기도하지만 연로한 호로비츠가 연주하는걸보며 나도모르게 많은눈물을흘렸습니다 종소리마저 성스럽습니다.

My mother played this - very beautiful - and close to this. She was very musical and very sensitive. It sounded like this - more or less. She´d be flattered, if she knew, I was saying this. She said her goodbye on January 6th in 2006.

I have never heard a piano sound so incredibly beautiful as this!

I played this at my grandmother's funeral, as it so perfectly expresses both celebration and sorrow. Such a beautiful song.

Indeed that piano is an extension of him. A true master of not only himself but his art as well. ❤

Sublime. Nothing more need be said

Раньше думал, что играть Шуберта должны такие же молодые, как и автор. Для трогательного романтического подхода. Горовиц же смог не только передать романтический настрой, но и показать ту мудрую глубину, которая заложена в произведениях юного гения! Спасибо!

Softly played at times, gentle, and emotionally strong at other times: Horowitz is very sensitive in his heart.

Es ist so, als könne es kaum eine andere Möglichkeit der Interpretation geben. Fantastisch.

I imagined I was watching from the audience as I listened to this and it brought tears to my eyes. Still crying now after it has finished, mourning the beauty that had passed.

This piece is truly from the heaven.

I love how his hands lay at the keys and such beautiful music emerges so effortlessly

Le contrôle absolu de son Art: une précision millimétrique derrière une apparente simplicité, la beauté et l'émotion délivrées en cadeau.

The piece was composed a year before the death. Schubert suffered from incurable illness and his body and soul ached all the time. Despite this the masterpiece came out life-affirming. Wolodimir played it perfectly well

There is some magic that Horowitz has, where he is IN the moment, and one is pulled in continuously because there is nothing "abstracted" or rote-predictable in the unfolding of note and phrase. After decades and decades, I am usually still sitting on the edge of my seat for this fresh unfolding of the musical moment. There are a few, older European, I think, vinyl recordings where I do not sense this "in the moment quality." My first Horowitz album was Chopin Sonata in B flat minor, at age 12. Years later, after a tour in the Army, and living as a civilian in Germany for 3 years, I got to hear him in Dallas, Texas; I was finishing undergrad and Pre-Med. I had no idea what he would be playing that day, but my heart lept with the opening bars of that Sonata. It was utterly fresh!!! That lucidity and endless variety of tone rang and pulsated in the concert hall. Reading the Wikipedia article on Vladimir H. recently (I had not ever looked it up before), it cited his "direct emotional connection with his hearers." Limbic system and heart intelligence of the artist resonating and creating sympathetic resonance in the limbic systems and heart-minds of many hearers over place and time. A wonder, I ween.

this is my great great uncle

From my perspective, this is the best rendition ever of this beautiful piece of music ... tender ... and heartfelt.

Nach Jahren wieder zufällig drauf gestoßen. Mir kommen die Tränen 😢❤

musicians like Horowitz play so purely and reach so deeply within themselves that they touch the soul of the composer and this is what you hear. Pure music, pure emotion.

Schubert is sublime in many pianists hands but here Horowitz is unique with his very own unsophistcated interpretative skill which nobody can criticise. The fingering, the beauty of sound in the most pianissimo parts sends a shiver down the spine, Rubinstein was my idol for years, but the more I hear Horowitz the less I listen to Rubinstein, I love both but..........

It is amazing how he brings out certain themes on different notes without hardly moving his fingers and his signature FLAT handed playing style where he is still able to generate so much power...in a class by himself.

The articulation, dynamics, flow and balance of this emotional piece is very powerful. 🎹 Love d it.

This was very gentle, like the wind brushing against the skin. It felt like waking up in my mom's arms with the sun peeking through the blinds and the dust in the air is visible, floating around in the air.

Quel maître! Je suis toujours impressionné par le positionnement de ses mains et forcément la force développée par ses doigts pour obtenir un rendu aussi sublime.

Water weight sent me here.. Thanks Niko! Beautiful music 🎶

every single time I hear this recording I feel the first tears in my eyes after 8 seconds. from another world.

it makes me want to cry by its beauty I wonder what did he see in that piece