David Harbin writes:

>It was a relief to hear the 1930 Coates/Horowitz on Naxos (listen on
>www.naxos.com).  Coates' fiery conducting and Horowitz's sheer virtuosity
>in the final pages are breathtaking.

Yes, that 1930's version has 'combustible' written all over it.  In
addition, the Naxos disc has a number of solo Horowitz performances,
three of which have never been previously released.  Unfortunately, the
Naxos website indicates in the boldest of lettering that the disc is not
available in the United States.  Evidently, the Naxos empire would
self-destruct if the disc made its way here.

Within a couple of weeks, I'll be reviewing the disc for MusicWeb.  It
will be the second review of the disc for MusicWeb; the first one is
already available for your perusal.  More than likely, my comparisons
for the Horowitz/Coates will be the performance by Rachmaninov around
the same time period and the two more recent commercial efforts from
Horowitz on RCA.  There's always much to learn from history.

Don Satz
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