Artur Schnabel Beethoven

There was not then & there is not now a more profound interpreter of the piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven than Artur Schnabel, & his 1930s recordings of them are now as they have always been & as they will always be the greatest recordings of the works ever made. Schnabel’s Waldstein Sonata is pure joy, his Appassionata is dark despair, & his Sonata in E minor is complete consolation. Schnabel’s Sonata in E major is radiant bliss, his Sonata in A flat is luminous ecstasy, & his Sonata in C minor is numinous spirituality. Generations of critics have carped at Schnabel’s technique &, in truth, he does lack the technique to play the closing movement of the Appassionata at tempo. But generations of listeners have heard Schnabel’s deep soul & his sublime musicianship & have therefore cheerfully disregarded any critical quibbles in gratitude for Schnabel’s transcendent performances. EMI’s remastering of the 1930s monaural originals is obviously antique but nevertheless clear enough to let the lucid light of Schnabel’s performances shine through. Anyone who values their immortal soul should listen to these recordings.

While as an interpreter he is remembered most readily as an advocate of the piano music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Artur Schnabel's own favorite among the so-called "Great Masters" was Franz Schubert. Largely, Schnabel was able to record his little sips of Schubert in between great heaping gulps of Beethoven, and over a period of eighteen years managed to amass the 5 CDs worth of music that makes up Music and Arts' magnificent Artur Schnabel: The Complete Schubert Recordings. This set is "complete" in the sense that it includes every disc of Schubert that Schnabel made and approved for commercial release.

Artur Schnabel, identified above all with the music of Beethoven, was also a supreme interpreter of Schubert. Initially trained in Vienna, he played a crucial role in advocating the Austrian composer’s piano music at a time when such masterworks as the late sonatas enjoyed surprisingly little currency. By the time he started making these recordings, in the early 1930s, Schnabel was already a mature artist, and their essential lyricism is complemented by his characteristic rhythmic vitality and intellectual rigour. Newly remastered from original sources, these historic interpretations now benefit from audio quality of unprecedented truth and immediacy.