{"id":3191,"date":"2011-03-29T08:25:03","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T08:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pianostreet.com\/blog\/?p=3191"},"modified":"2011-03-29T09:49:50","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T09:49:50","slug":"the-great-arthur-schnabel-deciphering-beethoven-the-last-three-sonatas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianostreet.com\/blog\/video-picks\/the-great-arthur-schnabel-deciphering-beethoven-the-last-three-sonatas-3191\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Arthur Schnabel: Deciphering Beethoven – The Last Three Sonatas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A legend among pianists of the twentieth century, Artur Schnabel (April 17, 1882 \u2013 August 15, 1951) was an Austrian 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, he displayed a vitality, profundity and spirituality in works by Beethoven<\/a> and Schubert<\/a> above all. His performances of these compositions have often been hailed as models of interpretative penetration; and his best-known recordings are those of the Beethoven piano sonatas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Schnabel did much to popularize Beethoven’s piano music, making the first complete recording of the sonatas, completing the set in 1935. This set of recordings has never been out of print, and is considered by many to be the touchstone of Beethoven sonata interpretations. His interpretations of the late, visionary sonatas of Beethoven were spiritual testaments.<\/p>\n

Artur Schnabel’s editing of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas (1000+ pages total) stands as one of the most unlikely and yet colossal resources of pianistic wisdom generally and piano technique in particular ever compiled. The original edition of the 32 Sonatas edited by Schnabel was published in Milan, Italy by Edizioni Curci in three volumes. A re-engraved and corrected two-volume, five-language (English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish) American edition is available from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hear Schnabel play the three last Sonatas of Beethoven:<\/p>\n

Sonata Opus 109: <\/p>\n