Artur Schnabel BT 1020 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) (sion07405] Artur Schnabel Beethoven Piano Concertos 5 & 2 Gu ri) Cee &ARTUR SCHNABEL At Schnabel (1862-1951) was once described as the most virile, ender ssionate ad intellectual of al plans. And i hardly surprising that such fich and inclusive qualities should emanate from a man of exceptional wom and wide culture, His wit, to, was proverbial, Asked which school he adhered io: the one which makes you playin ime or the one which makes you play a= You fool Schnabel asked) "Can't one feelin time” Again, fora ma who hed his Fist English lesson a the age of thiry-eight, Schnabel had 2 remarkable command ofthe language, healthy sceptical things, fe was fond of defining ‘personaly in plano-paying as ‘conspicuous and recurrent mannerisms’ and, as, Ns devoted and biant student Sie Clifrd Curzon said, Schnabel did ot restct his love of puns and spoonerisms to musi. After Tess han succesful vs fo the dentist he protested," pad ity ailing for these shy filings Like al pioneers ofthe highest distinction, Schnabel has been parodied and risrepresented and he himself was quick to quote erica estimates Ohi as tithe austere, professorial, scholarly and rumiative’ ota psy aps Hhombsstie neoromantic or quite simply, an amateur. Ve, s serene and assured twas Scnabels at that knot only stood the test of time but expanded to become ouchstone of quality arly in his if, Schnabel was told by his eminent teacher Leschetzky, "You wll never bea pans, you are a musician’, and he later accepted this ibguous remark a the highest compliment. Afer alle knew too many Pianists who would never be musicians, and he candidly rejced in his unusual focus on the highest musical and spiritual ideals For him, music was a calling and a religion whose demands were to be met with unswerving layalty, and afer a remarkably shot time he discarded those composers who filed to provide him with a musical rather than a mechanical challenge. In his own word, his “concern was with music that" always beter than ican be performed’. Schnabel ‘vasa eat admirer, for example, of Chopin and List but he nonetheless prefered those composers he considered of prime importance. His ciel loves‘were Mozant, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms, ancl af these he was most classy sociated with Beethoven For many, Beelhowen and Schubert are synonymous. Certainly no other pianist has achieved a tue Beethovenian eloquence with such force and feconamy. But if Schnabel found a direct path to musical uth, hs reward was hard won. Audiences atthe turn ofthe century were disinclined to sien recitals exclusively devote tothe Viennese classics, preferring instead a sweeter Ahet composed Irely of shor romantic showpieces spiced with hyphenated Bach, Godowsky and Schulz-vler. Schnabel quickly sequied a reputation as ‘dour and inaccessible and he was ft aa again! pant such 3 Rachmaninow who enjoyed what he considered a cheap scces, His wit tumed understandably caustic and he pounced with sais lee on evidence of provincial ignerance ad supericialty. “1 am the ony pianist who plays 2 Second half of a programme as boring asthe firs, he quipped, and was ond of. “quating an American newspaper that scorfully claimed of his Mazart Concert performance that he even played the passe work as if it meant something However, an increauing wind of change meant that afer years of neglect nd misunderstanding, Schnabel became fis accepted, Hien kegendary and finally a cule gure. Once seen as cereal and forbidding he was ater exalled as both Vital and profound. When recognition came it was overwhelming, BEETHOVEN: CONCERTOS NOS. 5 & 2 Schnabel recorded the Beethoven Concertos on several acasions, but his set with say Dobrowen a Alceo Galera sacl omits the First stil remains the finest of all. Schnabel may have detested recording refering to EMI's staan 38 ‘the Abbey Road torture chamber, yet he invariably transcended his fear and inhibition and captured permanenly on discal of his iesistbe ebllence, Vvidnest and character. Doubtless pained bythe odd imprecision of ensemble, telescoped phrase or pasing wrong note, he sought tirelessly for qualities above and beyond mere accuracy. As he hinself pti to his sometimes ‘doubting Thomas ofa produces,“ ould play mere pecectly, bul ould at play beter For Schnabel, simple comectnes ra literal response tothe score were hardly ‘compatible with the highest interpretative o reereative goals Mis temp in bth fast and slow movements are exceptionally api, and inthe Second Concert, Allegro qvalifeations such a8 con brio or moto have an irepresible vitality and tang [No pianist in ny experience achieves a greater sense of Becthoven’s robust, bucolic humour; he audacious beak with convention The composer's beloved sorzandi and cross accentuation (nthe Finale’ opening, foe example) Shap and sparkle with dazzling wit and immediacy and, no less Charocterstclly, the speculative calm Schnabel finds the central Adagio is achieved without a hit of portentousness or arifice. The mighty opening {ascaes ofthe Fith Concerto, too, are played with an uncompromising tdecines, and inthe Adagio Bethaven’s preserved planissimo expressivo ‘ever temps Schnabel into sel-dsplay. Whispered confidences were rarely part Of his always bracing and invigorating nature and he was always the least hatcssistic of pani. Troe, the paying fs hardly blemish, yet the ‘occasional rushed fence or impetuous gesture are like mere spots onthe sun, the fesult not of inadequacy but ofan alemately tempestuous and serene temperament, an elemental force which had lite se for minor vitues or iceties of expression, The American pianist Nan Davi, his tongue frmly in his cheek, may have Claimed thatthe downward pat started with Schnabel the was, of couse, Feferrng to Schnabeltes~ disciples and devotees whose attempts enolate ‘exaed vies beyond their comprehension led only to dryness and ponderousness, and Moritz Rosenthal may have joked about Schnabel’ falure fo be accepted for military service no fingers, you se’, but the simple wath is tat Schnabel opened the way to Olympian realms of musial experience and, as these performances so patenly show in vitally every bar, he was the possessor