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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Vladimir Horowitz
VLADIMIR HOROWITZ
Awarded by
President Ronald Reagan
July 28, 1986
He has said that it remains the purpose of his life to bring meaning to music each time he plays. With masterful technique, consummate musicianship, and profound humanity, Vladimir Horowitz brings not only meaning to music, but joy and beauty and meaning to all our lives. This adopted son of America, the last of the great romantics as he is sometimes called, is more than a national treasure, he is a treasure to people the world over.
The eminent piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz, was born in Berdichev, Russia, on Oct. 1 , 1903. He was an internationally renowned performer for nearly seven decades. He received his early training from his mother, an accomplished pianist herself, and early inspiration from none other than Alexander Scriabin, a friend and teacher of his uncle. Trained at the conservatory at Kiev, he became an accomplished pianist but preferred composing his own music to performing. He studied with Sergei Tarnowski, then Felix Blumenfeld, making his debut at the age of 17 in Khar'kov, in the Ukraine, in 1922. His success as a pianist in the new Soviet Union was assured by a series of 23 recitals in Leningrad in 1924. In these he performed a total of more than 200 works. After his family lost most of its possessions in the Russian Revolution, including the piano, he began giving piano recitals in exchange for food and clothing. In 1925 he went on a concert tour of Europe. Very successful in Europe, he made his American debut in 1928 in Carnegie Hall, playing Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto with the New York Philharmonic. Horowitz considered his true American debut when he met Sergei Rachmaninoff and played Rachmaninoff's own two piano arrangement of his Third Concerto. They immediately became close friends. He quickly gained a reputation as an outstanding virtuoso. In 1933, he married Wanda Toscanini, daughter of the conductor, Arturo Toscanini. Seven years later, after the outbreak of World War II in Europe, they settled in the United States, and in 1944 he became a United States citizen. Exhausted from strenuous concertizing, he retired in 1953. He continued making records, but returned in 1965 to perform in Carnegie Hall. Horowitz was always interested in how the young people felt about him and whether or not they knew who he was. He was a lifelong champion of the music of some lesser known composers such as Muzio Clementi, Domenico Scarlatti, and Alexander Scriabin. In January 1978 he celebrated the 50th anniversary of his American debut with a performance in Carnegie Hall of Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3 with the New York Philharmonic under Eugene Ormandy. Tired after the five very busy years after his golden jubilee Horowitz seemed headed toward a depressing end and in 1983 he retired after a very disappointing concert in Japan. After two years, in 1985, Horowitz again stunned the world with a recovery and a farewell tour that would last three years and take him around the world. . . again. He was featured in a film documentary entitled 'Vladimir Horowitz: the Last Romantic'. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest award that can be bestowed upon a US civilian.) in 1986, and in that same year he made the grand gesture of his career by returning to the USSR, from which he had left in 1925, for a series of sold-out performances. He was then off to Germany to perform in Berlin and Hamburg. He developed a love for Mozart later in life, and he recorded a Mozart concerto in 1988. His last public performances were in Vienna 1987. He died in New York City on Nov. 5, 1989.
Vladimir Horowitz, rehearsing before his 1965 comeback concert at Carnegie Hall.
Credit: Carnegie Hall Archives
Horowitz, Live and Unedited. The Historic 1965 Carnegie Hall Return Concert
Vladimir Horowitz winces as Mrs. Nancy Reagan places the Medal of Freedom around his neck. President Ronald Reagan presented the medal to the pianist calling him an "ambassador of peace."
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Medal History
