The two concerto recordings Vladimir Horowitz made in the early 1940s under the watchful baton of his father-in-law Arturo Toscanini were best sellers in their day, and they seldom (if ever) have been out of the catalog. Horowitz may have felt straightjacketed by the Maestro’s swift and steady tempos, yet the slow movements sing out with flexible phrasing and plenty of affectionate nuance from both soloist and the gorgeous NBC strings. At first hearing, the RCA Horowitz Collection transfer of the Tchaikovsky packs a strong wallop, but that’s partially due to added reverberation (a small but admittedly effective amount). For Naxos, Mark Obert-Thorn essentially presents a non-interventionist transfer from the best shellac sources available to him. While his Brahms is less bright on top than RCA’s, his mellower, bass-oriented equalization achieves a more satisfactory balance between piano and orchestra. What’s more, the rumble and the shellac wear I notice in the RCA version is absent from the present reissue. The verdict: I can live with either label’s transfers, but Naxos’ budget price gives it the edge.
