Artur Schnabel
| Artur Schnabel | |
|---|---|
Artur Schnabel, about 1906
|
|
| Born |
Artur Schnabel 17 April 1882 Lipnik (Kunzendorf) near Bielitz, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (today a part of Bielsko-Biała, Poland) |
| Died | 15 August 1951 (aged 69) Axenstein, Switzerland |
| Resting place | Schwyz, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Pianist and Composer |
Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century's most respected and most important pianists, his playing displayed marked vitality, profundity and spirituality in the Austro-German classics, particularly the works of Beethoven and Schubert. His performances of these compositions have often been hailed as models of interpretative penetration. His best-known recording is of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas; recorded between 1932 and 1935, it is the first recording ever made of the complete cycle of 32 sonatas, leading Harold C. Schonberg to refer to Schnabel as "the man who invented Beethoven".
Born in Lipnik (Kunzendorf) near Bielitz, Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (today a part of Bielsko-Biała, Poland), Schnabel was the youngest of three children born to Isidor Schnabel, a textile merchant, and his wife, Ernestine Taube (née Labin). He had two sisters, Clara and Frieda. His family was Jewish.
Schnabel's parents moved to Vienna in 1884, when he was two. He began learning the piano at the age of four, when he took a spontaneous interest in his eldest sister Clara's piano lessons. At the age of six he began piano lessons under Professor Hans Schmitt of the Vienna Conservatorium (today the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna). Three years later he began studying under Theodor Leschetizky, who once remarked to him, "You will never be a pianist; you are a musician"; accordingly, he allowed Schnabel to leave Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies and concentrate instead on Schubert's sonatas, which had been widely neglected up to that point.
...
Wikipedia