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.

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.

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

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.

Somewhere, Schubert is smiling.

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.

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.

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??

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.

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."

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.❤

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!)

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 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!

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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。

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

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.

il caresse les touches avec tant de tendresse! Un maître inégalé.

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

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

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.

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

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.

I am in tears thinking of poor Schubert putting his heart and soul into this music, knowing well his life was nearing the end because of disease. It's much like listening "Im Abendrot" sung by Hans Hotter. All lives have their own end in different ways.

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

This is absolutely ethereal.

Two years before dying...it's like a miracle.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

SCHUBERT...veličanstven i nenadmašan u svemu!!!🌏🕊️🌞✨🦜🌻

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 :"(

O, Боже, какое одухотворенное исполнение Шуберта, словно музыка рождается из небытия и овладевает душой, наполняя ее светлой радостью и мечтой блаженства.

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!

Sublime Horowitz ancora una volta ai massimi livelli.

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

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

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!

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.

This is joy happiness peace serenity Thank you Thank you Every note resonates in my innermost being.

this man has an amazing amount of love in his heart

Чудное исполнение волшебными пальцами.Светлая память пианисту!🙏🙏🙏👍❤💋

Solemn and divine! I bow to his genius … I don’t think this can be played any better… my eyes are watery 🌹

경건한마음으로 삶을되돌아보게하네요 워낙좋아하는곡이기도하지만 연로한 호로비츠가 연주하는걸보며 나도모르게 많은눈물을흘렸습니다 종소리마저 성스럽습니다.

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

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...

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

Merci Franz Schubert merci Monsieur Horowitz pour cette interpretation pleine de sensibilite et de sobriete.J'adore

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.

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

ホロビッツの音はなんて温かいんでしょう。 全てを包み込みます。 一音一音が独立してる、それでいてすばらしい調和。

Undoubtedly the most beautiful interpretation of this piece I’ve ever heard.

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

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.

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

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.

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..........

Questa meravigliosa persona ha il cuore come suona Dolce delicato e sognante. ❤❤❤

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

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

Without hesitation the best interpretation.

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

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

My third comment here over the years. This recording belongs to maybe the best minutes on You Tube. Listening to this would forget the un human cruelty of these days happens in Gaza and Oekraïne. In a docu of the maestro Horowitz calls himself “Ambassador of Piece and so he was and still is if you listen to this outstanding performance. Love is all around and that’s what the world need now and then.

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

This is my first, maybe also my last comment on youtube. Normally I feel like comments dont make sense. However, I just wanna say: Life is beautiful. Happiness is only real when shared. This old man knew that. Thank You

Schubert accomplished the impossible mission of proving the existence of God and Horowitz is his angel to speak about Him.

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

언제 들어도 좋은 곡. 포근하고 아름다운 연주. 정말 많이 들었지.

Listening to Horowitz in bed in our apartment at the Geezer Storage Facility near the Atlantic Ocean my eyes wspring eternal. Humans are wonderful creatures, at times. I love Earth, too. So some people don't/ Such is life.

Described once as the greatest musician who ever sang. Truly great singing. She once said that the most difficult thing about singing was going successfully from one note to the next! For me also wonderful to hear one of my teachers, Paul Hamburger accompanying her. Another truly great musician, from whom I learned an immense amount in every lesson.

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

Credo che Horowitz sia stato uno dei più grandi pianisti mai esistiti, ineguagliabile, irraggiungibile, unico e raro, le sue interpretazioni a volte fuori spartito, intendo non accademico, sono essenziali per comprendere che la musica è sempre in evoluzione anche quella classica.......... ciò che egli ha espresso attraverso la sua visione, rimarrà per sempre.

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

One of my favorites. Beautiful piece of classical gold.

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

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

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

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.

Goodness. This is tearjerking heaven!!!!!!!

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!

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

この曲は大好きです❤ ディヌ・リパッティの演奏を聴いて好きになりました。 この演奏も素晴らしいですね！ どうもありがとうございます😊

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

Восхищаюсь этим человеком... Просто ВЕЛИЧАЙШИЙ музыкант! В таком возрасте так и такое выдавать... Это произведение в его исполнении, можно слушать не уставая.