2025-07-27

Heroic or Caricature? A Comparative Study of Kissin and Horowitz in Chopin’s Heroic Polonaise

In the spirit of intellectual curiosity and aesthetic inquiry, I undertook a comparative listening of two markedly different interpretations of Chopin’s Heroic Polonaise: one by the legendary Vladimir Horowitz and another by the formidable Evgeny Kissin. Both pianists, revered for their prodigious technique and distinctive artistry, approach the score with evident mastery. Yet, the interpretive choices they make diverge so profoundly that the resulting experiences feel as though they belong to entirely different musical worlds.

Kissin’s interpretation strikes the listener with a sense of authenticity that feels almost archetypal. His approach seems attuned to the essential ethos of the work, eschewing superficial spectacle in favor of emotional sincerity. There is an immediacy in his phrasing, a conviction that emanates from both technical assurance and artistic humility. One hears in his performance not mere notes, but a narrative architecture imbued with heroic gravitas and tragic undertones, as though the very soul of the Polonaise were laid bare. The effect is leonine: powerful, resonant, yet dignified—never resorting to excess or artifice.

Horowitz, conversely, presents a reading characterized by breathtaking control and unmistakable personality. However, this personality—inflected with idiosyncratic flourishes and almost theatrical gesturing—subtly erodes the monumental weight of the piece. His articulation, particularly in the explosive opening, crafts not a Titan of Romantic heroism but something altogether more playful, even comic. There is an undeniable brilliance, a glittering wit to his phrasing, yet it borders on caricature: a hero rendered not with bronze and marble, but with ink and animation, charming in its energy but curiously devoid of existential urgency. One might be forgiven for smiling at its cartoonish exuberance, for feeling affection rather than awe.

To those who might insist that Chopin, ever the innovator, might have delighted in Horowitz’s playful inflections, I offer two considerations. First, Kissin has proven himself supremely capable of delicacy, as evidenced by his exquisite rendering of the Mazurka No. 4, demonstrating he is not a pianist of brute force but of honest restraint and flexibility. Second, Kissin’s interpretation of the Heroic Polonaise seems aligned, at least spiritually, with the emotional trajectory Chopin might have envisioned: a vision not of irony or whimsical bravado, but of profound struggle and affirmation. If Chopin could somehow hear these two performances, I suspect he might acknowledge Horowitz’s craftsmanship but reserve his admiration for Kissin’s fidelity of spirit.

Ultimately, Kissin gives us a hero of flesh and blood, noble and formidable, a figure one might genuinely believe in. Horowitz, for all his brilliance, offers instead an elegant but unserious caricature—amusing, dazzling even, but difficult to take as fully sincere. This distinction illuminates the perennial divide between interpretation that seeks approval and interpretation that seeks truth. Kissin, it seems, plays not for applause but for honesty, crafting a performance that feels inevitable, as though the music could sound no other way.

And so, for me, Horowitz’s hero—however virtuosic—is one I can only regard with affectionate amusement, never with the solemnity or awe the title Heroic seems to demand.

Links to performances : Horowitz   Kissin