Arthur Rubinstein

Arthur Rubinstein, KBE (honorary) (Lodz, Russian Empire, January 28, 1887 - Geneva, December 20, 1982) was a Polish-American pianist of Jewish origin, famous for his interpretations of Chopin and many other composers. He was named by The New York Times and top specialists as one of the great pianists of the XX century .

Biography

He was the seventh child of a Jewish family of weavers living in Poland. He began studying piano at the age of three. Shortly afterward he passed into the tutelage of the musician Alexander Rozincki, who quickly despaired of the pupil's laziness in performing the exercises required of him. However, his enormous musical talent led him to give his first public concert when he was only six years old. Subsequent experiences with Polish teachers also followed an unfortunate course, and in 1897 he went to Berlin to meet Joseph Joachim, famed violinist and friend of Johannes Brahms. The German musician was amazed and immediately took care of his musical education, in which Max Bruch, Heinrich Barth and Reynaldo Hahn also participated. In 1900 he appeared before the Berlin public under the direction of Joseph Joachim and accompanied by the city's Philharmonic Orchestra performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, the Piano Concerto No..º 2by Camille Saint-Saëns, pieces by Schumann and Chopin. Other concerts followed in Germany and Poland.

In 1904 he made his debut in Paris, where he would take up residence a little later. Two years later he would give his first concert in the United States, at Carnegie Hall, with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The reception was cold, and the subsequent tour in North America was not marked by success either. Concerts in Austria, Italy and Russia followed. In 1912 he debuted in London, where he could be heard as soloist and companion of the cellist Pau Casals. During the First World War he lived mainly in the British capital. He served as a translator, since he mastered eight languages, and played alongside the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. Concerts in South America and Spain (1916/1917) aroused his interest in Albéniz, Falla, Granados and Villa-Lobos, whose pieces would from then on become part of his repertoire. Due to an oath taken at the outbreak of war, he did not perform again in Germany after 1914. In the 1920s, after a second tour of the United States, he would play mainly in Europe.

During all this time, Rubinstein admits that he went a little off the path and dedicated himself to the main task of a child prodigy, “getting rid of immaturity.” According to his confessions, he gave himself over to carnal pleasures; Lacking desire and discipline, he dedicated himself to the piano and at concerts he blindly trusted his talent and his musicality: “When he was young he was lazy. He was talented, but there were many things in life that interested me more. Great wines, beautiful women, in the ratio 20% and 80%, respectively”, which is possibly why he never reached the technical perfection of his competitors. He designated himself as “the last player” among pianists, a fact that possibly determined his performance venues. He liked to play in southern countries, especially in Spain. There he liked his unbridled temperament, his lightness, his impetus. The four concerts planned for 1916 soon ended up being more than one hundred. He became a friend of the Royal House, and King Alfonso Such was his recognition that many Spanish-speaking countries declared him their adopted son and he became one of the most significant interpreters of his music. He did not enjoy the same celebrity in the United States and England. Rubinstein says with some sarcasm and self-criticism: “People there believe they pay to hear all the notes. I, however, leave a few under the table, around 30%, and people feel cheated. He couldn't sit for eight to ten hours in front of the piano. I lived for every minute. I admire Leopold Godowsky. It would take five hundred years to have his technique. But what did he have of all this? He was an unhappy, tense man who felt bad when he was not sitting at the piano. Didn't you let his life pass you by? Rubinstein once said that Paul Dukas contributed to his salvation: “Have all the fun you want, but don't spoil it. Paris is not for you. Go back to Poland, take care of your body and mind, drink milk, go horse riding, go to sleep at decent hours, become an honest man,” he told him. Adds Rubinstein: “It was very wise advice, and the best thing is that I followed it.”

Apparently, two events would change his life at that time: his wedding in 1932 with Aniela Mlynarski, daughter of the famous Polish director, and Horowitz's brilliant performance in Paris. In Rubinstein's own words: “I saw in him the new Liszt, capable of dominating his time. He wanted to throw everything out the window. Before I die, I want to show what I am capable of. I clenched my fists, not for long due to my profession, opened them again and began to work hard. I had to get revenge. Not from Horowitz, but from myself.”

From this moment on, Rubinstein assumed his dedication to music with renewed strength, imposed self-discipline and practiced up to sixteen hours a day. Such an effort was rewarded for him, since after his reappearance at Carnegie Hall in 1937 he was hailed as a genius and the entire tour of the United States was triumphant. They were finally able to hear the relevant percentage of notes. At fifty years old he had become a great pianist.

After the German invasion of Paris in World War II, he moved with his family to the United States, a country whose nationality he obtained in 1946.

In the following decades he gave concerts all over the world, made many recordings and worked with renowned musicians such as Jascha Heifetz, Emanuel Feuermann, Henryk Szeryng, Gregor Piatigorsky and the Guarneri Quartet. In 1958 he returned to play, after more than twenty years of absence, in Poland, where the public honored him with tears and a standing ovation, the second in the history of this country, after the one Paderewski received.. He continued playing until a very old age, being able to perform both Brahms concertos in the same night. Due to progressive blindness that forced him to retire in 1976, his last performance took place at London's Wigmore Hall. If something marks the career of this extraordinary pianist, whom Thomas Mann described as a "happy virtuoso", it is, along with his unmistakable sound, his reputation as a life-saver, a humanist and a person intoxicated by the “joie de vivre”.

Style and repertoire

His optimistic mentality was reflected in the vitality of his performances. He had an unmistakable sound, safe, round, full of clarity and sonority, and capable of unthinkable nuances. He felt at home in both classicism and romanticism, in the Russian, Spanish and French repertoire. He will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the best interpreters of Frédéric Chopin. He freed the Polish composer's works from excessive sentimentality and mannerisms. He gave them strength, rhythm and a subtle sensitivity.

In an interview Daniel Barenboim commented: “Rubinstein's way of playing was so natural that it seemed like child's play. When someone tries to achieve such clarity he realizes how difficult the seemingly easy is.” When critic Joachim Kaiser asked how he generates that unmistakable sound, Rubinstein replied: “It's very easy: I step on the left pedal and play a little harder,” which was undoubtedly a somewhat humorous exaggeration, since the video recordings His interpretations reveal that he did not abuse this pedal, as the phrase may lead us to believe.

Anecdotes

A life like that of Arthur Rubinstein leaves many anecdotes to tell, here we record a few.

• In one of his concerts at the Teatro Principal de Palma de Mallorca he told the desperate tuner that he did not succeed in adjusting a note: “Let him, man. If people are not going to notice.” Years later, on the same stage, he passed all the people who had stayed at the door without entrance and let them sit on the stage around him. Something similar happened in Bilbao on November 20, 1970, when many students accessed the concert after breaking one of the local glass doors and heard the interpretation of Rubinstein sitting in the halls.

• The director and pianist Daniel Barenboim says that the first time he went to visit him at the age of eleven, who died of fear before such a musical eminence, the teacher gave him a cigar and a glass of cognac. The tension was evidently relieved, and the joy with which Barenboim returned home turned to his parents something suspicious.

• Astor Piazzolla says that in 1939, at the age of eighteen, he heard it at the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires) and fell in love with his way of playing the piano. He decided to write a piano concert, especially for him. Then he went to visit his apartment in Buenos Aires to show it. The first reaction of Rubinstein, though very kind, was the surprise that the concert was for piano alone. He began to play the first compasses of the young genius of Argentinian music and gave him a "strong and cordial look". He asked, "Tell me young, do you like music?" "Yes," Astor replied. "So why don't you go study it?" "That's why I'm here, I want to study music." Rubinstein would talk to the orchestra director Juan José Castro, who would end up recommending Astor to study with Alberto Ginastera.

• Joachim Kaiser narrates in his book “Große Pianisten in unserer Zeit” (Great pianists of our time) the setback that was presented to him while interpreting in Eindhoven the sonata Appassionata, whose meaning Beethoven explained with the phrase: “Lean The Tempest of Shakespeare.” In the third movement, in the presto-fortissimoIn that wild end, the banquet broke with a strong shave. Rubinstein became pale; but, far from clinging, he continued to play, half standing, half sitting, with incorrect notes, until the end.

Books

• Autobiography in English: My Young Years (1973) and My Many Years (1980).
• Autobiography in French: Mes longues années (3 volumes), ed. Robert Laffont, 1973-1980.

Awards and decorations

• Presidential Medal of Freedom (United States Medal of Freedom) (1/4/1976).

• Grand Officer of the National Order of the Legion of Honor).

• Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X el Sabio (1/4/1963).

Record repertoire

Many of the works were recorded on several occasions.

• Albéniz: Córdoba; Evocation (de) Iberia); Navarre; Sevillanas; Triana.
• Bach: Tocata, adagio and escape en do mayor BWV 564 (arr. Busoni); Chacona en re menor BWV 1004 (arr. Busoni).
• Beethoven: Sonata in do mayor Op. 2 No. 3; Sonata en do menor Op. 13 "Pathetics"; Concert for piano n.o 1 in do mayor Op. 15; Concert for piano n.o 2 in si bemol mayor Op. 19; Sonata for violin and piano in fa mayor Op. 24 "Primavera"; Sonata in do held minor Op. 27 n. 2 "Sure of the moon"; Sonata for violin and piano in the greater sun Op. 30 n.o 3; Sonata in my major bemol Op. 31 n.o 3; Concert for piano n.o 3 in do menor Op. 37; Sonata for violin and piano in the greater Op. 47 "Kreutzer"; Sonata en do mayor Op. 53 "Waldstein"; Sonata en fa menor Op. 57 "Appassionata"; Concert for piano n.o 4 in larger sun Op. 58; Concert for piano n.o 5 in my major bemol Op. 73 "Emperador"; Sonata in my major bemol Op. 81a "Los adios"; Trio with piano in if bemol mayor Op. 97 "Archiduque".
• Brahms: Opéra n. 3 in fa menor Op. 5; Trío con piano en si mayor Op. 8; Cuatro baladas Op. 10; Concierto para piano en re menor Op. 15; Cuarteto con piano en sol menor Op. 25; Cuarteto con piano en la mayor Op. 26; Quinteto con piano en fa menor Op. 34a; Sonata para violonchelo en mi menor Op. 38 100; Trio with piano No. 3 Op. 101; Sonata for violin and piano in re menor Op. 108; Intermezzo en mi menor Op. 116 n.o 5; Intermezzo en mi mayor Op. 116 n.o 6; Intermezzo en mi bemol mayor Op. 117 n.o 1; Intermezzo en si bemol menor Op. 117 n.o 2; Intermezzo en do sustained Op. 117 n.o 3; Intermezzo en la mayor Op. 118 n.o 2; Balada en sol menor
• Chaikovski: Concert for piano n.o 1 in if bemol menor Op. 23; Trio with piano in the lower Op. 50.
• Chabrier: Scherzo-valse (da Pièces pittoresques).
• Chopin: 51 Mazurcas (Opp. 6, 7, 17, 24, 30, 33, 41, 50, 56, 59, 63, 67, 68, "à Émile Gaillard", "Notre temps"); 21 Nocturnos (Opp. 9, 15, 27, 32, 37, 48, 55, 62, 72 Op. posth); Studio in do held minor Op. 10 n.o. 4; Studio in my minor No, no, no. 53 Heroique; Scherzo n.o 4 in my major Op. 54; Berceuse in bemol mayor Op. 57; Sonata in if minor Op. 58; Barcarola Op. 60; Polonesa-fantasy in the bemol major Op. 61; Fantasy-lmpromptu in do sustained minor Op. 66; Trois nouvelles études.
• Debussy: Prelude (from the Suite bergamasque); La soirée dans Grenade (de) Prints); Jardins sous la pluie (de) Prints); Masques; L'Isle jeweleuse; Hommage à Rameau " Reflets dans l'eau (de) Images I); Poissons d'or " Mouvement (of Images, II); Danseuses de Delphes - La fille aux cheveux de lin - Cathédrale engloutie " Minstrels (de) Preludes I); The lenient plus; The terrasse des audiences du clair de lune " Ondine (de Preludios, II).
• Dvořák: Fifth with piano in the major Op. 81; Piano quartet in my major bemol Op. 87.
• Judgement: Andaluza G. 37; Dance of terror " Ritual Dance of Fire (de) The brute love)Dance of the wife of the moliner " Moliner Dance (de) The three-peak hat); Nights in the gardens of Spain.
• Fauré: Piano quartet in do menor Op. 15; Nocturno in the major bemol Op. 33 n. 3.
• Franck: Prelude, coral and escape M. 21; Sonata for violin and piano in the largest; Symphonic Variations.
• Gershwin: Prelude No. 2.
• Granados: Andalusia (de) Spanish Dances Op. 37); The Maiden and the Nightingale (Laughters or the maja and the nightingale, Goyescas).
• Grieg: Elves' Dance Op. 12 no. 4; Folk Song Op. 12 no. 5; Concert for piano in the minor Op. 16; Balada en sol menor Op. 24; Album Leaf en do held menor Op. 28 n.o 4; Berceuse Op. 38 n.o. 1; Spring Dance Op. 38 n.o 5; Folk Song Op. 38 n.o 2 54 Butterfly 1
• Haydn: Andante with variations for piano in fa menor H. 17 n.o 6.
• Liszt: Concert for piano in my major bemol S. 124; Consolation in bemol mayor S. 172 n.o 3; Harmonies poétiques et religieuses S. 173 n.o 7 Funérailles; Sonata en si menor S. 178; Valse-Impromptu S. 213; Valse oubliée n.o 1 S. 215; Rapsodia (from Schumann, ar. Liszt, S. 566).
• Mendelssohn: Trio with piano in re menor Op. 49; Spinning Song Op. 67 n.o 4.
• Milhaud: Ipanema (de) Saudades do Brasil n.o 5); I shall summate (de Saudades do Brasil n.o 9); Larenjeiras (de Saudades do Brasil n.o 11).
• Mompou: Songs and dances, n. 1 and n. 6.
• Mozart: Piano Concert in the Largest Sun K. 453; Piano Concert in the Lesser K. 466; Piano Concert in the Wholesale K. 467; Piano Quartet in the Lesser Sun K. 478; Piano Concert in the Greater K. 488; Piano Concert in the Lesser K. 491; Piano Quartet in my Major Bemol K. 493; Rondo en la menor K. 511.
• Poulenc: Trois mouvements perpétuels, FP 14; Napoli FP 40; Intermezzo para piano en tumol mayor FP 71 n° 2; Intermezzo en la bemol mayor, FP 118.
• Prokófiev: Visions fugitives Op. 22 (selection); March L'amore delle tre melarance Op. 33).
• Rajmaninov: Prelude in do sustained minor Op. 3 No. 2; Concert for piano n.o 2 in do menor Op. 18; Rapsodia on a topic of Paganini Op. 43.
• Ravel: La vallée des cloches (de) Miroirs); Noble and sentimental Valses; Trio with piano in the Lesser; Forlane (de) Le tombeau de Couperin).
• Rubinstein: Barcarolle Op. 50 n° 3 in lower sun; Barcarolle n.o 4 in larger sun; Walse-Caprice in my major marble.
• Saint-Saëns: Concert for piano in lower sun Op. 22.
• Schubert: Fantasy en do mayor, D. 760 Wanderer; Minuetto of the Sonata en sol mayor D. 894; Trio with piano en si bemol mayor D. 898; Impromptu en sol bemol mayor D. 899 n.o 3; Impromptu en la bemol mayor D. 899 n.o 4; Trio with piano n.o 2 D. 929; Sonata en si bemol mayor D. 960.
• Schumann: Carnival Op. 9; Fantasiestücke Op. 12; Symphonic Studies Op. 13; Träumerei (de) Kinderszenen Op. 15 n. 7); Kreisleriana Op. 16; Fantasy en do mayor Op. 17; Arabeske en do mayor Op. 18; Novellette en fa mayor Op. 21 n.o 1; Novellette en tu mayor Op. 21 n.o 2; Novellette en tu mayor Op. 21 n.o 5; Nachtstück en 54 mayor Opmol (de) Waldszenen Op. 82).
• Scriabin: Night for the left hand in bemol Op. 9 No. 2.
• Stravinski: Three scenes (from Petrushka).
• Szymanowski: Mazurcas Op. 50 n. 1, n. 2, n. 3, n. 4 ' n. 6; Concerting symphony Op. 60.
• Villa-Lobos: Alegria na horta, (de Floral Suite), A. 117 No. 3; Branquinha (de A Prole do bebê, I, A. 140 No. 1; Moreninha A Prole do bebêI, A. 140 n. 2); Caboclinha A Prole do bebê, I, A. 140 n. 3); Negrinha (of A Prole do bebêI, A. 140 No. 5); A Prole do bebêI, A. 140 No. 6); O Polichinelo (from A Prole do bebêI, A. 140 n. 7); A Bruxa (of A Prole do bebêI, A. 140 n. 8).