Schnabel, Artur - PTNA Piano Music Encyclopedia

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Schnabel, Artur 1882 - 1951

Author: Hatano, Sayuri

Last updated：September 1, 2010

Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.

Artur Schnabel was a leading pianist, composer, and music educator in the German-speaking world during the first half of the 20th century. Born in Lipnik, then part of Austria, he moved to Vienna in his early childhood. He studied piano, music theory, and composition under Leschetizky, Mandyczewski, and others, and began his full-fledged musical career based in Berlin around 1898. To escape the influence of the Nazis, he left Germany in 1933, emigrated to the United States in 1939, and acquired American citizenship in 1944. After the war, he was again active in Europe until his death in Axenstein, Switzerland, in 1951.

While Schnabel is widely known for his achievements as a pianist, such as his complete cycles of Beethoven's piano sonatas, the first-ever complete recording of these sonatas, and his active public performances of Schubert's works, his actual musical activities were remarkably multifaceted. As an educator, Schnabel taught at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik from 1925 to 1931, and also engaged in private piano performance education throughout his life. His pedagogical principles regarding performance are still conveyed today through his edited scores and the writings of his students, and it is no exaggeration to say that they form a part of the norms of modern piano performance. Furthermore, records of Schnabel's lectures and writings reveal him as an eloquent author, and his role as a cultural figure who championed and embodied new artistic ideals in the early 20th century is also significant.

As a composer, Schnabel was by no means limited to the field of piano music, leaving behind three symphonies, five string quartets, and numerous lieder and chamber works. Throughout his long compositional career, he started with a late-Romantic style and gradually acquired a more radical idiom through his friendships with Schoenberg, Krenek, and Sessions. The works that have attracted much scholarly attention as turning points are Notturno for alto and piano (1914) and Sonata for Solo Violin (1919). Notturno is a work set to a long poem by Dehmel, composed by Schnabel, who had frequent discussions with Schoenberg from 1913, and was influenced by Schoenberg's works, particularly 15 Lieder aus Stefan Georges Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, Op. 15 (1908-1909) and Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912). In this piece, traditional principles of musical structure, namely tonal centers and bar lines, are completely abandoned. In the Sonata for Solo Violin, the free development of linear structure pioneered in Notturno is further pursued, resulting in what Krenek called a "respectable fusion of inexhaustible inventiveness and well-controlled concentration," creating "probably the longest work ever for the medium of solo violin" (ibid.).

It should be noted that in recent Schnabel scholarship, there has been a remarkable increase in interest in Schnabel as a composer. In 2001, the 50th anniversary of his death, fifteen concerts showcasing Schnabel's works were organized in Berlin, and in 2003, a detailed catalog of his works was published. Score publications are also actively progressing, and opportunities to experience live performances and recordings of his works are increasing.

Note: This article is automatically translated from the original Japanese text. The author of the original work did not supervise this translation.