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.. Acknowledgement by the New York-based 'United Jewish Appeal' |
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![]() Pages from Ruth Schneider-Arrau's first Chilean pasport, issued in December 1937, valid until December 1938. [Image by courtesy of Mrs. Laura Brennan] . ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Some pages from Ruth Schneider-Arrau's Chilean diplomatic pasport issued in 1938, subsequently extended to include the children. [Images by courtesy of Prof. Martin Berz] . |
Certificate of birth registration of Claudio Arrau León |
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'Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau
lived in this building |
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Claudio Arrau: American Express credit card 1966-1972. |
16-inch LPs. |
.. Radio program No.32 of 11th March 1945 from Carnegie Hall. |
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Claudio Arrau's middle age signature. |
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In 1995, Mr. Daniel Guss, then Director of Product Developement, BMG Classics, wrote back to 'ArrauHouse' indicating the existence of an unreleased early recording by Claudio Arrau of Mozart's piano sonata in C minor. |
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Claudio Arrau Conversación con ilustre pianista chillanejo. |
Entrevista periodística publicada por el diario El Día de Chillán, el viernes 13 de mayo de 1921, con motivo del primer regreso de Claudio Arrau a su país natal, a la edad de 18 años, luego de graduarse del Conservatorio Stern de Berlín. [Nota: La transcripción conserva la ortografía de la época] |
xxxDespues de las primeras lecciones que el maestro Paoli le dió en Chile, fué a recibir en Berlin las del profesor Krausse a quien, nos decía ayer en una conversacion, debe gran parte de su formacion artística y conserva la mayor gratitud. Le preguntamos por su carrera, sus triunfos. Se espresa con sencillez y naturalidad, sin afectaciones de ninguna especie. Claudio Arrau pertenece a la escuela de los modernos que no necesitan dejarse crecer el pelo ni afectar aires estraordinarios. xxx— Comencé mis conciertos en 1914, nos dice, dando uno en Berlín con un éxito que jamas imajiné. De ahí seguí presentándome en las principales ciudades de Alemania y en las Cortes de los diversos Estados jermánicos, como era entonces costumbre. En 1916 obtuve en concurso el piano de cola que ofrecía como premio la fábrica de Ibach y que gané entre 7 pianistas. Poco despues recibí la medalla de honor de Holländer tambien en un concurso. En 1917 gané el diploma de honor del Conservatorio Stern y al año siguiente la mas alta distincion que hasta hoi he recibido: el diploma escepcional de ese mismo Conservatorio que se daba entonces por primera vez en los 64 años de existencia de ese instituto. Despues viajé por los países escandinavos, dando conciertos que tuvieron resultados en estremo favorables y merecieron de la crítica elojios entusiastas. Estuve en Inglaterra donde dí últimamente 33 conciertos. La prensa ha reproducido aquí críticas inglesas. Mis conciertos del Aeolian Hall, una de las salas mas interesantes de Londres, me dejaron sumamente satisfecho. Por último, he estado en Viena i Buda Pest. Viena es un centro musical único en el mundo a pesar de la guerra. La vida artística sigue allí como antes y en nada se advierte esteriormente la crísis por que ha pasado y pasa el Austria. Puedo decir sin vacilar que la apreciacion de los críticos vieneses, que me ha comparado con grandes maestros, ha sído para mí mas satisfactoria que otra alguna porque sé que allí son esquisitos y exijentes. xxx— ¿Qué autores prefiere usted para sus interpretciones? xxx— ¿Qué rumbos seguirá usted ahora? xxxClaudio Arrau tiene condiciones personales para abrirse camino, tiene fé artística, tiene valor, trabaja con tesón, carece de vanidades y afectaciones, posee el encanto de una gran frescura de alma unida a un talento poderoso y una voluntad fuerte. Hai en él algo del predestinado del arte que sigue su camino sin vacilaciones, seguro de que llegará, de que ya ha llegado cuando otros comienzan. xxxEl Día, Chillán. |
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'Artur Schnabel: Servant of the Music' |
An appraisal written by Claudio Arrau for 'Musical America' magazine, published on page 31 of the February 1952 issue. |
.. xxxxAt the time of his death, last August, Artur Schnabel was known throughout the world, from his performances and recordings, as the greatest Beethoven interpreter of our time. Such a reputation no great concert pianist before him had ever attained to a comparable degree – not even Hans von Bülow or Eugen d'Albert. In view of the magnitud of the works and stature of their composer, Schnabel's interpretations constituted an achievement unsurpassed by those of the earlier giants of the keyboard, from Liszt onward. xxxxLong before the war, Schnabel was already considered in Berlin to be the supreme intellectual authority on Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms – hence, also, dry. Schnabel's younger contmporary, Edwin Fischer, on the other hand, was known as a volcanic, eruptive Beethoven player. But whereas Fischer often became "Selbstherrlich" in performance and was not above putting in things that were not in the score, Schnabel was the first to insist on faithful adherence to the written page. In his field he was the first celebrated performer to illustrate the concept – strangely enough, a new one in his time – of the interpreter as the servant of music rather than the exploiter of it. xxxxSchnable completely rejected the nineteenth-century notion of music as a vehicle for self-expression, at the service of the virtuoso for his own self-gratification. Von Bülow, the first major interpreter of the Beethoven sonatas, loved to give his public a program consisting of the Hammerklavier Sonata before intermission, the Hammerklavier after intermission, and the Hammerklavier for an encore. But he did not adhere to the printed text. He thought nothing of filling out chords, altering passages that he considered poor-sounding in the original, or raising passages an octave. This practice he perpetuated, without offering any explanation, in his published edition of the sonatas. xxxxFor Schnabel, however, not even the carefully revised Urtext edition of the Beethoven sonatas published in Berlin in 1898 under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Art was definitive. He engaged in research of his own, corrected the supposed Urtext, and added his suggestions and conclusions. Only when his own edition of the sonatas was published in America many years later, did the scope and originality of his contribution become clear. He set out to fix exact time markings for every part of every sonata. In other editions, each movement had only its initial metronome mark. Every good, sensitive artist understood, of course, that each movement is a living organism with an inner fluctuation and flexibility above and below the metronome markings. Schnabel attempted to show all this on paper, and succeeded in indicating the natural elasticity of tempos for the first time xxxxWhen the Schnabel edition first appeared, it created a wave of indignation among piano teachers both here and in England, although not in Germany, where the tradition of freedom of expansion in interpretation had always been understood and accepted. Altogether it was a contribution whose magnitude and influence are even today insufficiently appreciated. xxxxThe Schanbel method of editing is exemplified in the Sonata Op.31, No.3. The first movement is marked Allegro - 116; but looking down a single page of the Schnabel edition one observes the following metronome changes – 126, 138, 116, 138, 144. This was the work of Schnabel the innovator. It was not enough for him to play this music as he felt it and divined it from the inside out: he had to show to others how its life flowed and ebbed. He was a surgeon who took up a scalpel, cut deep below the surface, and revealed the heart-beat beneath. xxxxSchnabel was a pioneer in discrediting for ever the idea that all classic music has to be played in a dead metronomic manner. To a musician who understood from the first that Beethoven was all expression and meaning and emotional assertion, there could be no such thing as the rigid Beethoven playing, that, despite Schnabel's efforts, is unfortunatelly still prevalent both here and in Latin countries. xxxxRemembering how Schnabel played Beethoven, two things particularly stand out in memory – his grasp of the whole character of every sonata and his divine way with the slow movements. With all the sonatas, from the very first one – in which Beethoven is already Beethoven and a master, and which is therefore entirely definite both in shape and construction and in essential character – to the final Op.111, where Beethoven is the seer transcending all human struggle, Schnabel became a seer himself in his grasp of the component details and the sum total of this colossal literature. xxxxIn a period when playing fast often seemed to be the sole goal of piano virtuosity, Schnabel paid no heed and showed his courage by making the slow movements really slow. Strengthened by conviction and concentration, he played them slower than anyone else had even imagined to be possible. Absolutely unforgettable was his way of slowing down still more at the end of such movements, a slowing-down that created a dramatic atmosphere and tension that were both impressive and unique. This was evidence of a deep, inner repose that most musicians attain only late in life, if ever, but that he possessed to a rare degree almost from the beginning. xxxxSchnabel had an unshakable conviction of being right. Consequently, he often became a veritable prophet, and in his performances achieved to an uncanny degree a powerful and compelling definiteness that seemed truly to recapture the spirit of Beethoven himself. xxxxA magnificent example of his slowing down can be heard in the recording of the coda of the slow movement of Op.10 No.3. He stays on individual notes as long as he feels he needs to – unhampered by consideration of beats and bars – according to an inner vision that seems both Beethoven's and his. |