Vladimir Horowitz - Etude-fantaisie in E-flat major "Les vagues" (audio + sheet music)

All surviving original compositions crafted by Horowitz originated during his student years in Russia. We have unsubstantiated reports that Horowitz composed furiously between 1911 and 1919, but very few of his efforts seem to have survived. Horowitz did keep some of these manuscripts from his early compositions in his private collection, and when he was asked in an interview toward the end of his life whether he would like to have them published he quickly replied “No…They are too modest.” After his death, his wife Wanda Toscanini ensured that the works remained unpublished. Horowitz dedicated his Étude-fantaisie in E flat major, Op. 4, “Les vagues” to his piano teacher S. Tarnowsky, with whom he studied at the Kiev Conservatory from 1914 to 1919. “Purely romantic and a little bit naïve, this piece shows the musical influence of Rachmaninoff’s Moment Musicaux in C major.