Horowitz met and married Wanda Toscanini in 1933 when her father invited Horowitz to be the soloist in Beethoven's
Piano Concerto No. 5. Mrs. Horowitz took a central part in arranging her husband's activities, in fact in nearly all aspects of his life. In 1934 Wanda gave birth to their only child, daughter Sonia, who died in 1975. Wanda said that Sonia's death was the greatest agony a mother could bear. Wanda and Horowitz separated in 1948.
Byron Janis, one of Horowitz's students, has written that he and Wanda were involved in a brief affair during this period. Horowitz and Wanda reconciled in 1951. In the aftermath of Horowitz’s 1953 nervous breakdown, she remained by his side. While she took pride in being married to the legendary virtuoso, she also confided that it was, at times "a cross to bear". Horowitz left nearly all of his estate ($6 million to $8 million) to his wife. Wanda bought a 200-year-old farm house that she named "Pinci's Acres" (Pinci was Wanda's nickname for Horowitz) in
Ashley Falls, Massachusetts, and stocked it with American antiques and Horowitz memorabilia. She then divided her time between this home and the
New York City townhouse. An animal lover who volunteered for the
ASPCA, she adopted several stray cats. Wanda was entombed alongside her husband in the Toscanini family crypt at
Cimitero Monumentale in Milan. In May, 2004, vandals broke into the tomb and opened her coffin, possibly searching for jewelry. About her marriage, Wanda said: "To be the daughter of Toscanini, I didn't have any merit because I could have been born to anybody. But to be the wife of Horowitz, in that I take a little bit of pride". Wanda Toscanini Horowitz appeared in several filmed documentaries about her husband, most notably
The Last Romantic, in which she responded to her husband's artistry and reflected on her life in the world of music as daughter and wife of two incomparable musicians. A friend of
Woody Allen, she had a small speaking part in his film
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). ==References==