Artur Rubinstein

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Artur Rubinstein
( Carl van Vechten , 1937)

Artur Rubinstein (born January 28, 1887 in Łódź , Russian Empire ; died December 20, 1982 in Geneva , Switzerland ) was a Polish pianist with American citizenship. He is considered one of the great universal pianists of the 20th century. He achieved particular importance as an interpreter of the works of Frédéric Chopin .

Life

childhood

Artur Rubinstein was born the seventh child of a Jewish hand weaver family. He was called Artur because one of his siblings knew a cellist named "Artur" and therefore advised his parents to choose this name. His older sister took piano lessons, but didn't take them very seriously. The young Artur, on the other hand, listened to every word the piano teacher said and liked to find familiar melodies on the keys. When he was two or three years old, he started playing the piano. His talent was therefore recognized early on, and he was brought to live with Aleksander Różycki , a respected Polish piano teacher. He couldn't do anything with the boy, however, because Rubinstein kept falling asleep as soon as he was supposed to play any exercises. At the age of seven Rubinstein gave a Mozart concert in Łódź with the local Philharmonic. Rubinstein witnessed a pogrom around the age of seven. Rubinstein's mother brought the ten-year-old to Berlin in autumn 1897, at that time the home of famous musicians. Here Joseph Joachim found rich sponsors for the young Rubinstein and recommended him to the strict piano teacher Karl Heinrich Barth . Here he learned everything he needed to be a piano virtuoso in an exhausting seven-year course. Rubinstein was taught in German and later in life spoke German like his mother tongue.

youth

Rubinstein traveled to Warsaw with a noble Polish friend and gave several concerts. His charming manner, his good manners and his highly virtuoso piano playing made him the darling in the Warsaw salons. In 1904, at the age of seventeen, he moved to Paris, where, within a few months, he again became the darling of the Parisian bohemians. He got to know Marcel Proust , the Rothschilds , Maurice Ravel and Paul Dukas and played the 2nd piano concerto by Camille Saint-Saëns in the presence of the composer.

In 1906 he performed for the first time at Carnegie Hall in New York and then toured the USA, Austria, Italy and Russia .

Back in Paris, he had to admit to his impresario that his tour had not brought the hoped-for success and that he had not been hired again for the next year. The young Count Armand de Gontaut-Biron offered him to move into his luxury apartment on Place Vendôme and could easily persuade Rubinstein to leave his cheap pension.

Rubinstein Monument in Łódź
Face of the Rubinstein Monument

Young adulthood

In 1912 he made his debut in London, where he met Igor Stravinsky , Jacques Thibaud , Pablo Casals , Pierre Monteux and other musicians. At the beginning of the First World War he stayed in London, where he gave recitals and accompanied the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe . In 1916 he visited Spain for the first time. Four piano recitals were planned, but he ended up performing no less than 120 times and becoming a friend of the royalty. King Alfonso of Spain issued him a passport for free Poland even before Poland had an embassy in the Iberian country. All Spanish-speaking countries soon declared him their adopted son, and he has been one of the most important interpreters of their music ever since. On this tour he enthusiastically discovered the works of Enrique Granados , Isaac Albéniz , Manuel de Falla and Heitor Villa-Lobos . Villa-Lobos dedicated his piano solo Rudepoêma and Stravinsky a three-movement piano arrangement of the Petrushka ballet to him .

But the impression of easily won triumphs was deceptive. His extraordinary talent was his greatest danger: his ideal piano hands (from C to G of the next octave) and his great musicality initially convinced him that he did not have to practice so much. In addition, he learned by heart quickly and only had to briefly scan the notes before a piano recital.

In 1907 he played the opera Salome by heart; In the salons he performed the second act of Carmen tone for tone, singing along all the arias on the piano. Rubinstein himself explained why he was not sure of success everywhere:

“As a young person I was lazy. I had talent, but there was a lot in my life that was more important to me than practice. Good food, good cigars, great wines, beautiful women ... When I played in Latin countries, in Spain, France, Italy, I was loved for my temperament. In Russia I didn't have any problems either, but in England and America the public felt that they had to hear all the notes for their money; But at the time I let a lot of them fall under the table, maybe thirty percent, and you felt cheated. I couldn't sit at the piano for eight to ten hours a day. I lived for every minute. I was deeply impressed by Leopold Godowsky . It would take me five hundred years to get such technology. But what did he get out of it? He was an unhappy, uptight person who felt miserable when he wasn't at the piano. Didn't he miss his life? "

- Rubinstein

marriage

The turning point in his life was his marriage to Nela (Aniela) Młynarski, the daughter of the conductor, under whose direction Rubinstein had already given concerts at the age of fifteen. As a husband and father, he needed a steady income.

He and his wife Nela had four children, including the American composer and actor John Rubinstein and their daughter Eva, who married William Sloane Coffin .

Another event had a decisive influence on this change in life:

“ Horowitz delighted Paris, he literally tore it out of my hands. I saw in him a new Liszt . I wanted to throw everything. Before I die, I want to prove what I'm capable of, I told myself. I clenched my fists, but as a pianist I couldn't do that for long, I opened them again and began to work hard. I had to take revenge - not on Horowitz, but on myself. "

- Rubinstein

In 1937 Rubinstein undertook a major concert tour through the USA, which he took by storm with 17 concerts. During the Second World War , he moved from Paris to Hollywood , where he received US citizenship in 1946 . In 1944 he worked in the American musical film Follow the Boys .

In 1947 he played again in Europe for the first time. He was cheered in more than 35 sold-out concerts. His four Paris concerts brought in a sum of 5 million francs (1.6 million DM), which he donated to the victims of the war. In 1954 he moved back to his Parisian residence, only a few meters from Debussy's last house.

Older age

In 1964, at the height of the Cold War , he gave a legendary concert in Moscow with works by Chopin , Schumann , Debussy and Villa-Lobos . His last concert took place in May 1976 at Wigmore Hall in London.

Although Rubinstein was best known for his solo concerts, he also enjoyed an excellent reputation as a chamber musician who performed with celebrities such as Henryk Szeryng , Jascha Heifetz , Pablo Casals , Gregor Piatigorsky and the Guarneri Quartet . At the beginning of his career, Rubinstein refused to teach. It was not until the 1950s that he developed an educational activity and became the teacher of François-René Duchâble , Avi Schönfeld, Ann Schein Carlyss, Eugen Indjic, Dean Kramer and Marc Laforêt , among others .

In 1971 he was accepted as an external member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts . Rubinstein's urn was buried in Jerusalem a year after his death .

style

The New York Times described Rubinstein's style as natural, casual, and free from nervousness. In contrast to many contemporary pianists, Rubinstein did not play seriously, but conveyed his happiness through his playing. Artur Rubinstein thought he was the happiest person in his circle of acquaintances. Rubinstein's daughter Eva Rubinstein said of him that in order to play the way he wanted to play, he had to participate in life in his own way.

Daniel Barenboim testified that pianists before Rubinstein Chopin played with a “rhythmic anarchy”, so they allowed themselves a lot of freedom in creating the rhythm. According to Barenboim, Rubinstein avoided this because of his view of the task of an interpreter.

Rubinstein's daughter Eva Rubinstein testified that Brahms was a perfect match for Rubinstein.

According to the New York Times, Rubinstein's physique influenced his sound, particularly his long arms and wide-span hands and elongated thumbs.

Opinions

Artur Rubinstein advised his young students to practice a maximum of three hours a day. As reasons for this he gave

  • that an exercise plan of z. B. seven hours a day means that piano students cannot get to know enough culture,
  • that the brain can only practice wisely and thoughtfully for about three hours and
  • that after three hours the practice turns into "pure mechanics", which he criticized.

Rubinstein has described himself as a proud Jew since childhood. He admired the courage of the Jews during 2000 years of exile, as well as the fact that they often did not adapt, but instead kept their affiliation to their religion and culture (During the time of National Socialism and afterwards he did not appear in Germany, but for example in Switzerland ; according to the surgeon and pianist Kern, he had sworn in 1914 that he would never play in Germany again).

Rubinstein was also opposed to the idea that there could be a “best” in art. From his point of view, there are different types of art, but there are no differences in value. But Rubinstein believed that artists had to have a distinctive personality.

Rubinstein described himself as a believer. However, he believed that belief must be based on "signs" that provide a basis for it, giving clues as to what to believe and why.

Anecdotal

“I'm lucky to have a job that allows me to travel so much. And then again I am lucky to be a pianist . A great instrument, the piano , just big enough not to be taken with you! Instead of practicing, I can read, eat, drink, and do other activities. Am I not lucky? "

- Rubinstein

This quote is from Artur Rubinstein; it is characteristic of him, whom Thomas Mann called the "happy virtuoso". His autobiography describes the enjoyable social life of a cosmopolitan on a grand scale; the enjoyment of wines, good food and, last but not least, women. He preferred to do finger exercises in the cinema, where no one saw it.

“Wonderful, astonishing, incomprehensible, but it is not just the technical clarity of his playing, the touching, heart-moving luster of his phrasing, the stormy temperament of his outbursts. All of this weighs a lot and wants to be conquered, preserved and kept alive. "

- Joachim Kaiser

Awards (selection)

Grammy Award for the best chamber music recording :

Grammy Award for the best instrumental solo recording (without orchestra) :

  • Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat major / Schumann : Fantasiestücke op.12 (Schumann) (Grammy Awards from 1978)
  • Beethoven: [Piano] Sonatas No. 21 in C major (Waldstein) and No. 18 in E flat major (Grammy Awards from 1960)

Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

  • In 1994 he was awarded the Grammy Life Achievement Medal.

Fonts

  • Arthur Rubinstein: Memories. The early years. Translated from the English by Günther Danehl. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, 590 pp.
  • Arthur Rubinstein: My happy life. Translated from the English by Günther Danehl. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1980, 792 pp.

literature

  • Harvey Sachs: Arthur Rubinstein. The biography. From the American by Michael Schmidt, Kindler, Munich 1997, 751 S., Ill.

Movies

Discography (selection)

  • Since 2011 there has been a CD collection of over 140 CDs plus two DVDs and an accompanying book.
  • RCA Living Stereo - 60CD Collection
  • Rubinstein plays Chopin (6 CDs)

In 1910 a record label called Favorit (e?) Made a recording of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10 with Rubinstein . Rubinstein found the sound of the recording poor (he said the piano sounded like a banjo) and stopped making recordings until the electrical recording process existed.

But then he played, several times, large parts of his repertoire on records. These are the basics of the later CDs.

He recorded in the 1920s, some player piano -Musikrollen for Aeolian - Duo-Art system and for the American Piano Company (Ampico).

Web links

Commons : Arthur Rubinstein  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Art Rubinstein Biography. (No longer available online.) In: Biography.com. Archived from the original on February 28, 2014 ; accessed on February 28, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Ernst Müller: Five selected great moments of Chopin's piano playing . ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ; PDF) In: Analogue Audio Association , 2010,
  3. ↑ a b c Arthur Rubinstein Dies in Geneva at 95. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 25, 2014 ; accessed on February 28, 2014 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Arthur Rubinstein - a documentation (arte). Retrieved February 28, 2014 . Part 2 , part 3 , part 4
  5. ↑ a b Arthur Rubinstein at 90 - Interview. Retrieved February 28, 2014 . , Youtube
  6. ↑ Artur Rubinstein Interview at his Home in Paris in 1965. Retrieved on March 18, 2020 (YouTube video).
  7. ^ Rubinstein - the artist. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 25, 2014 ; accessed on February 28, 2014 . , Page of the Arthur Rubinstein Competition
  8. ↑ Arthur Rubinstein on Practicing - Youtube. Retrieved February 28, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Ernst Kern : Seeing - Thinking - Acting of a surgeon in the 20th century. ecomed, Landsberg am Lech 2000. ISBN 3-609-20149-5 , p. 25 f. and 319.
  10. ↑ Arthur Rubinstein - Quotes
  11. ↑ Joachim Kaiser on Arthur Rubinstein. In: Great pianists in our time . 5th edition. 1996, ISBN 978-3-492-22376-8 , p. 60.
  12. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: zeit.de )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / shop.zeit.de
  13. ↑ audio samples
  14. ↑ Box with 55 legendary recordings of the "Living Stereo" series from 1953–1963 on 60 CDs. The four complete opera recordings (Puccini: La Boheme, Turandot & Madama Butterfly; Verdi: La Traviata) are included as well as the audiophile sampler "Pop & Classics" - with Harry Belafonte and Eddy Arnold, among others. Deluxe edition in a jewelry box and the CDs in cardboard pockets in the old LP look. All recordings have been remastered. directory
  15. ^ Label: Regis, ADD / mono, 1936–58
  16. ^ Harvey Sachs, with a discography by Donald Manildi: Rubinstein: A Life , 1st ed. Edition, Grove Press, New York 1995, ISBN 978-0-8021-1579-9 .
personal data
SURNAME Rubinstein, Artur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rubinstein, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish-American pianist
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Łódź , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1982
Place of death Geneva , Switzerland