Bain News Service · Public domain

Horowitz left Russia in 1925 and built a reputation, over six decades of touring and recording, as one of the most technically formidable pianists of the twentieth century, capable of a tonal range and control that other performers studied like a puzzle. His concerts drew crowds that behaved more like an event than a recital, and his 1965 return to Carnegie Hall after a twelve-year retirement from the stage remains one of classical music's most celebrated comebacks.