Carmen Variations (Horowitz)

He played the Variations from his earliest concerts in the 1920s, when he delighted his audiences with the "show stopping" encore, through to his golden jubilee season in 1978, over 50 years later.

The main theme of the piece originates from the energetic Gypsy Dance from act 2 of Bizet's opera Carmen (Les tringles des sistres tintaient), a theme that has been used by many for various other variations and transcriptions, including Moritz Moszkowski's "Chanson bohème de l'opéra Carmen".

He performed it in many concerts and showed it to a couple of friends and acquaintances, and even made a piano roll of the piece, but kept the score to himself.

[3] The piece begins with the basic unchanged theme in a rapid tempo, however, the mood soon turns playful but with an increasing technical demand on the pianist.

After an intricate, chromatic scale passage, taking the form of a short cadenza, the music suddenly explodes into mayhem and Horowitz blows the main theme through the roof, showing huge virtuosity, power and a brilliant technique at the keyboard.

[3] Horowitz performed the piece at his famous Carnegie Hall concert in 1968 televised by CBS, with some minor changes from the 1967 version, mostly alterations to the coda.

The last recording of the "Carmen Variations" occurred in February 1978 at Horowitz's televised White House concert, celebrating the 50th anniversary of his American debut.