Artur Schnabel

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Artur Schnabel, circa 1906

Artur Schnabel (born April 17, 1882 in Kunzendorf near Biala ( Galicia ); † August 15, 1951 in Axenstein near Morschach , Canton Schwyz , Switzerland ) was an Austrian pianist and composer .

Life

Berlin memorial plaque on Wielandstrasse 14 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Artur Schnabel was born into a Jewish family and was the youngest of three children. His parents were Isidor Schnabel, a textile merchant, and his wife Ernestine Taube, née Labin. He grew up in modest circumstances. As a child he moved to Vienna with his mother and two sisters . There he made his debut as a pianist in 1890. The barely 12-year-old stayed in Vienna as a guest, while his mother and sisters returned to his father in western Galicia for the next three years.

After piano lessons with “Madame Essipoff” he became a student of her (ex) husband Theodor Leschetizky . He received free lessons in music theory and composition from Eusebius Mandyczewski , whom he was also allowed to accompany to the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde . Mandyczewski let his young pupil take part in the Sunday excursions with Johannes Brahms without him taking any special notice of the child.

In 1899 his daughter Elizabeth Rostra (1899–1995) was born before they were married . In 1900 Schnabel moved to Berlin and married the alto Therese Behr-Schnabel (1876–1959) there in 1905 , with whom he performed at numerous recitals. In 1911 he played with the violinist Karl Klingler , cellist Arthur Williams and the Berlin Philharmonic , the Triple Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven , which brought him international attention.

Schnabel had close friendships with Ernst Krenek , Eduard Erdmann and Hans Jürgen von der Wense . He played the piano part in a performance of Schönberg's Pierrot lunaire . Immediately after Hitler came to power in 1933, he emigrated to Great Britain with his family. From 1933 to 1939 the Schnabel family lived in Tremezzo on Lake Como in the Villa Ginetta during the summer . The Schnabel School was also located there. This was directed by Peter Diamand, who later became the director of the Holland Festival . Artur Schnabel taught the pianists, his wife Therese the singers and Szymon Goldberg, who was dismissed by the Nazis as concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic , the violinists. These summer classes were attended by about fifty master students. In 1939 the Schnabel family emigrated to the USA, as did Schnabel's sisters. With his symphonies written there, Artur Schnabel had a strong influence on American new music, especially on Roger Sessions .

Artur Schnabel's mother stayed in Austria after the Anschluss in 1938. She was deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt in August 1942 and died on October 4, 1942 as a result of the terrible conditions in the ghetto. After the war, Schnabels returned to the Italian Tremezzo.

As an interpreter, Schnabel was an advocate of resolute faithfulness to the work. He mainly devoted himself to compositions that, in his opinion, “are better than they can be performed”. However, he almost exclusively played the old classical repertoire. Arnold Schönberg said in a letter to Carl Engel: “His point of view not only seems silly to me, but almost criminal. I mean, it's a real artist's first duty to play contemporary music. If all the interpreters had behaved like him, the works of the greatest masters would still not have the audience's ears. ”Schnabel's focus was on the works of Beethoven , Schubert , Brahms , Schumann and Mozart , some of which he also edited. In the 1920s he played the entire cycle of Beethoven sonatas. He is also considered the discoverer of Schubert's piano sonatas, which were still underrated at the time. No composer, according to Schnabel, “is closer to God than Schubert”.

Schnabel was also of eminent importance as a piano teacher. His students included Lili Kraus , Clifford Curzon , Claude Frank , Dinu Lipatti , Leon Fleisher , Maria Curcio and Wladyslaw Szpilman , among many others . Konrad Wolff has published first-hand about his teacher's interpretation theory and practice.

As a composer, Schnabel was heavily influenced by Arnold Schönberg. His extensive compositional work includes three symphonies , five string quartets and numerous chamber music works. In terms of interpretation, it was above all the American violinist and conductor Paul Zukofsky who supported Schnabel's works. Since 2001, most of the compositional autographs have been kept in the Berlin Academy of the Arts . In the same year there was also a series of concerts with Schnabel's works.

Schnabel's recordings are an integral part of the discographic repertoire. He made the first, standard-setting complete recording of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas on record, recorded for His Master's Voice between 1932 and 1937 . His Schubert recordings are also considered exemplary. With his son, the pianist Karl-Ulrich Schnabel (1909–2001), Schnabel also recorded numerous four-hand piano works. Another son was the actor Stefan Schnabel (1912–1999). Both brothers were in close contact with their older half-sister, Elizabeth Rostra, throughout their lives . On May 8, 1905, Artur Schnabel recorded fifteen piano pieces for the Welte-Mignon reproduction piano , certainly the oldest recordings he has received.

Compositions (chronological)

  • Concerto for piano and orchestra (1899)
  • Numerous early songs for voice and piano
  • Piano quintet (1915/16)
  • Notturno for voice and piano, based on a text by Richard Dehmel
  • String Quartet No. 1 in D minor (1917)
  • Sonata for violin solo (1919)
  • Dance suite for piano (1921)
  • String Quartet No. 2 (1921)
  • String Quartet No. 3 (1922)
  • Piano Sonata (1923)
  • String Quartet No. 4 (1930)
  • Sonata for solo cello (1931)
  • Sonata for violin and piano (1935)
  • String Trio (1935)
  • Rhapsody for orchestra
  • Symphony No. 1 (1938)
  • String Quartet No. 5 (1940)
  • Symphony No. 2 (1941–43)
  • Piano Trio (1945)
  • Seven piano pieces
  • Symphony No. 3 (1948)
  • Duodecimet (1950), edited posthumously by René Leibowitz

Discography

His String Quartet No. 1 and his 'Notturno for Alto and Piano' were released on CD in 2011 by the classical label cpo . In 2013 the piano quintet, the three piano pieces op.15, the piano sonata from 1923, three fantasy pieces for piano, violin and viola as well as the songs op.11 and op.14 were released on a double CD, also on cpo. The Chandos Records label took up in 1996 a CD with Schnabel's piano sonata.

There are also numerous recordings with Arthur Schnabel as the pianist:

  • The 5 piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven with the London Symphony Orchestra were released on the Historia label.
  • In 2004 a 20-CD box “Piano Kaiser” was released, in which he was named fourth as a “great pianist” and received his own CD. On this CD he plays piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert .
  • In 2005 a 4-CD box "Artur Schnabel plays piano concerts" was released (recordings from 1936 to 1950)
  • In 2005 Artur Schnabel - The 1946-47 HMV solo recordings appeared
  • In 2009 the EMI label released a box with 8 CDs, the recordings of which were made between 1932 and 1950 (all piano solo).
  • In 2011 a CD "Artur Schnabel plays piano concerts" was released (recording from 1944/45 with the New York Philharmonic under George Szell and Alfred Walleinstein )

Fonts

  • Reflections on Music. Manchester 1933 (German in music and the path of greatest resistance )
  • Music and the Line of Most Resistance. Princeton 1942. New edition Hofheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-936000-51-1
  • Music and the path of greatest resistance (German translation by Hermann J. Metzler), Hofheim 2007, ISBN 978-3-936000-50-4
  • You will never become a pianist (German translation by Hermann J. Metzler), 2nd expanded new edition Hofheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-936000-52-8
  • Music, Wit, and Wisdom. The Autobiography of Artur Schnabel. (expanded new edition of My Life and Music ), Hofheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-936000-53-5

literature

Web links

Commons : Artur Schnabel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article on Artur Schnabel in the Encyclopedia of World Biography .
  2. ↑ Felix Wörner:  Schnabel, Artur. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 270-272 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ Artur Schnabel: You will never become a pianist , p. 53.
  4. ↑ Artur Schnabel: You will never become a pianist , p. 30 ff.
  5. ↑ Artur Schnabel: You will never become a pianist , p. 31 f.
  6. ↑ a b c Maria Stader: Take my thanks. Memories. Retold by Robert D. Abraham. Munich 1979, ISBN 3-463-00744-4 , pp. 163, 171-173, 292.
  7. ^ Kaiser piano: 14 great pianists on 20 CDs, the most beautiful recordings selected and commented by Joachim Kaiser . Süddeutsche Zeitung publisher, “Classic” section, Munich 2004.
personal data
SURNAME Schnabel, Artur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schnabel, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 17, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Kunzendorf near Biala , Galicia
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1951
Place of death Axenstein near Morschach , Switzerland