Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian pianist, teacher, and composer. He was born in Kunzendorf, Galicia, in Austria-Hungary, the third and youngest child in a Jewish family of a cloth merchant. In 1884 his family moved to Vienna. He began studying the piano at the age of four after becoming interested in the lessons of his older sister Clara.
From the age of six he studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Hans Schmitt, and three years later he was accepted into the class of the celebrated Theodor Leschetizky, with whom he studied until 1897. During his first year there he underwent strict technical training under Anna Yesipova and Leschetizky's assistant Malwine Brée. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish contact with Anton Bruckner, he studied music theory and composition with Eusebius Mandyczewski, an assistant of Brahms, and through him entered Brahms's circle. Schnabel often saw Johannes Brahms and once attended a performance of Brahms's First Piano Quartet with the composer taking part.
In the year he graduated from Leschetizky's class, Schnabel gave his debut concert in the Bösendorfer Hall, followed by a series of concerts in Budapest, Prague, and Brno. In 1898 he moved to Berlin, where he made his debut in Bechstein Hall. After the First World War he toured in the United States, Russia, Great Britain, and Spain. He first became known as a soloist in concertos with orchestras conducted by Arthur Nikisch and as a chamber musician, appearing as accompanist to the singer Therese Behr, who later became his wife.
In 1902 he founded the first Schnabel Trio with the violinist Alfred Wittenberg and the cellist Anton Hekking; it lasted until 1904. In 1905 he founded a second Schnabel Trio with Carl Flesch and Jean Gérardy. In 1914, at the outbreak of war, the Belgian Gérardy left the trio because he could not remain in Germany, and Hugo Becker replaced him, creating the third Schnabel Trio. Later Schnabel played in a quartet with Bronisław Huberman, Paul Hindemith, and Gregor Piatigorsky. He also performed in ensembles with Joseph Szigeti, Pablo Casals, and Pierre Fournier, and he was a friend and musical partner of major conductors of his time, including Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, George Szell, Willem Mengelberg, and Adrian Boult.
From 1925 he taught at the Berlin Academy of Music. In 1933, after the Nazis came to power, he left Germany. He lived in Italy and gave master classes in Tremezzo. From 1939 he lived in the United States, and in 1944 he received American citizenship. He taught at the University of Michigan. After the end of the Second World War he returned to Europe and settled in Switzerland. He never again came to Germany or Austria, even when invited by Furtwängler, and he continued touring and making recordings until the end of his life.
Schnabel was especially renowned as an interpreter of German music, above all the Viennese classics Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, although his repertoire was much broader. In his early Berlin years he performed works by Liszt, Chopin, and Weber, and on his early American tours he also played Chopin's preludes and Schumann's C major Fantasy. He later removed such works from his repertoire, saying that he wished to perform only music that stood above any interpretation. He played a major role in popularizing the piano music of Schubert and especially Beethoven, and he became the first pianist to record the complete Beethoven sonatas, a cycle now regarded as a benchmark despite technical imperfections.
He and Therese Behr had two sons: Karl Ulrich, who also became a pianist, and Stefan, an actor. Schnabel was decorated with the Montenegrin Order of Prince Danilo I and was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame. He was also the author of the autobiographical book My Life and Music, published in 1961. He died in Axenstein near Morschach, in the canton of Schwyz, and was buried in the Cemetery of Schwyz, where his grave was later declared a protected municipal memorial.
Connections
This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.