Great Performers: Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel will for many music lovers always be "the man who invented Beethoven," as he was called by Harold C. Schonberg in his seminal book 'The Great Pianists'. While the Austrian pianist-composer hardly "invented" the great Beethoven, their names remain intertwined because Schnabel was the first to record the legendary composer's complete piano sonatas. The historic undertaking, funded by subscriptions, was a gruelling process that took nearly four years and resulted in the release of 102 twelve-inch discs spread across twelve volumes. Schnabel was not enamoured by his experience in the studio (which he referred to as a "torture chamber"), but the results of his efforts have had a profound impact on musical culture and pianism, having remained a benchmark for subsequent generations.
Read more…Born in 1882, Schnabel studied in Vienna with the legendary Polish pedagogue Theodor Leschetizky, whose own teacher Czerny had studied with Beethoven. But the great mentor was not one for teaching a fixed approach, being more focused on drawing out of each pianist their innate qualities. Leschetizky told Schnabel, "You will never be a pianist; you are a musician," which speaks to the intellectual and spiritual component for which the Austrian pianist’s interpretations are still esteemed.
A versatile musician, Schnabel was composer as well as an adaptable performer: an avid chamber music player, he accompanied his wife, alto Therese Behr-Schnabel, and played two-piano repertoire with his son Karl Ulrich, in addition to his activities as a sought-after soloist and teacher. He brought to all of his performances a singing sonority, soulful phrasing and refined pedal technique that gave each line a warm glow and an air of reverence.
If Schnabel had the odd lapse in precision or pushed the rhythm, he did so with a contagious exuberance and enthusiasm. Beethoven's own performances were said not to be polished to the degree we expect today, and one wonders if this occasional robustness fused with devotion contributes to the mesmerizing nature of Schnabel's readings. "The notes I handle no better than many pianists," he stated. "But the pauses between the notes – ah, that is where the art resides."
Schnabel recorded less Bach than he did Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, but his readings are no less beautiful, with a crystalline singing touch and transparent textures. His Mozart reveals simultaneously the joyful and melancholic content of the composer's oeuvre, while his hearty, vivacious traversals of Beethoven are tempered with veneration, insight, and radiance.
A pioneer in his programming of Schubert, Schnabel performed and recorded the sonatas at a time when even some of the musical elite were unaware that these works existed; to these accounts he brought the same devotion and nobility afforded the more established classics. In his few recordings of Schumann and Brahms, he highlighted passion with brawn and vivacity while lyricism was always present with his warm touch and masterful pedalling.
In every note – and in the spaces between them – Schnabel’s artistry shines through.