Editing Vladimir Horowitz (section)

== Personal life ==
In 1933, in a civil ceremony, Horowitz married [[Wanda Toscanini Horowitz|Wanda Toscanini]], [[Arturo Toscanini]]'s daughter. Although Horowitz was Jewish and Wanda was Catholic, this was not an issue, because neither of them was religiously observant. Because Wanda knew no Russian and Horowitz knew very little Italian, their primary language was French.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Walsh |first=Michael |date=2005-06-21 |title=Vladimir Horowitz: The Prodigal Returns |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1075118-7,00.html |access-date=2024-06-20 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}</ref>

Horowitz was close to his wife, who was one of the few people from whom Horowitz would accept a critique of his playing, and she stayed with Horowitz when he refused to leave the house during a period of depression.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZm7OW3ufbc | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211118/eZm7OW3ufbc| archive-date=2021-11-18 | url-status=live|title=Horowitz TV Interview 1977 |date=August 25, 2010 |website=YouTube |access-date=March 31, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> They had one child, Sonia Toscanini Horowitz (1934–1975). She was critically injured in a motorbike accident in 1957 but survived. She died in 1975.<ref name="Assay">{{Cite web |last=Assay |first=Michelle |date=10 January 2020 |title=Vladimir Horowitz: Our Contemporary |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/vladimir-horowitz-our-contemporary |access-date=10 February 2020 |website=Gramophone |publisher=Mark Allen Group |archive-date=30 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930212302/https://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/article/vladimir-horowitz-our-contemporary |url-status=live }}</ref> It has not been determined whether her death in Geneva, from a drug overdose, was accidental or a suicide.<ref name="schonberg" />

Despite his marriage, there were persistent rumors of Horowitz's homosexuality.<ref name=plaskin/> [[Arthur Rubinstein]] said of Horowitz that "[e]veryone knew and accepted him as a homosexual."<ref>Plaskin, 1983, p. 162.</ref> [[David Dubal]] wrote that in his years with Horowitz, there was no evidence that the octogenarian was sexually active, but that "there was no doubt he was powerfully attracted to the male body and was most likely often sexually frustrated throughout his life."<ref>Dubal, 1991, p. 16. "During the years I knew him, there were no signs of any sex life and very little talk on the subject. I personally doubt that he was capable of loving a man emotionally, but there was no doubt he was powerfully attracted to the male body and was most likely often sexually frustrated throughout his life."</ref> Dubal felt that Horowitz sublimated a strong instinctual sexuality into a powerful erotic undercurrent communicated in his playing.<ref>Dubal, 1991, pp. 16–17.</ref> Horowitz, who denied being homosexual,<ref>Dubal, 1991, p. 251.</ref> once joked, "[t]here are three kinds of pianists: Jewish pianists, homosexual pianists, and bad pianists."<ref name="Forward">{{Cite web |title=The Great White (Jewish, Gay) Way |date=15 October 2004 |url=http://www.forward.com/articles/4342/ |access-date=19 April 2009 |archive-date=12 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112043341/http://www.forward.com/articles/4342/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Plaskin" />

In an article in ''The New York Times'' in September 2013, Kenneth Leedom, an assistant of Horowitz for five years before 1955, said he had secretly been Horowitz's lover:
<blockquote>
We had a wonderful life together... He was a difficult man, to say the least. He had an anger in him that was unbelievable. The number of meals I've had thrown on the floor or in my lap. He'd pick up the tablecloth and just pull it off the table, and all the food would go flying. He had tantrums, a lot. But then he was calm and sweet. Very sweet, very lovable. And he really adored me.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 September 2013 |title=58 Years and Counting. A Love Story. |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/nyregion/58-years-and-counting-a-love-story.html?_r=0 |access-date=20 February 2017 |archive-date=22 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222102343/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/nyregion/58-years-and-counting-a-love-story.html?_r=0 |url-status=live }}</ref>
</blockquote>
In the 1940s, Horowitz began seeing a psychiatrist in an attempt to [[Conversion therapy|alter his sexual orientation]].<ref>Janis, Byron. ''Chopin and Beyond: My Extraordinary Life in Music and the Paranormal'', pp. 67–68. Wiley. {{ISBN|0-470-60444-1}}</ref><ref>Plaskin, Glenn (1983). ''Biography of Vladimir Horowitz'' Quill {{ISBN|0-688-02656-7}} p. 215 "In December 1940, Horowitz had begun psychoanalysis with an eminent psychiatrist, Dr. [[Lawrence Kubie]], a strict Freudian who was attempting to exorcise the homosexual element from Horowitz."</ref> In the 1960s, and again in the 1970s, the pianist underwent [[electroshock treatment]] for depression.<ref>Plaskin, Glenn (1983). ''Biography of Vladimir Horowitz'' Quill {{ISBN|0-688-02656-7}} pp. 338, 387, 389.</ref>

{{rquote|right|Not long before Horowitz died, he called [his manager] [[Peter Gelb|Gelb]] and told him he was like family now and he didn't have to call him "Mr. Horowitz", he could call him "Maestro."|''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name="brown20130324">{{Cite news |last=Brown, Chip |date=2013-03-24 |title=The Operatic Reign of Peter Gelb |pages=MM26 |work=The New York Times Magazine |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/magazine/the-epic-ups-and-downs-of-peter-gelb.html?pagewanted=all |access-date=March 21, 2013 |archive-date=2013-03-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130321164911/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/magazine/the-epic-ups-and-downs-of-peter-gelb.html?pagewanted=all |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

In 1982, Horowitz began using prescribed antidepressant medications; there are reports that he was drinking as well.<ref name=schonberg/> His playing underwent a perceptible decline during this period,<ref name=schonberg/> with his 1983 performances in the United States and Japan marred by memory lapses and a loss of physical control. [[Hidekazu Yoshida]], Japanese critic, likened Horowitz to a "cracked rare, gorgeous antique vase." He stopped playing in public for two years.<ref>Satoh Masaharu(佐藤正治, [[:ja:KAJIMOTO|KAJIMOTO]]) 放射線22 「ひびのない骨董品」 "[[Tokyo Shimbun]]" 6-13-2006</ref>