Talk:Artur Schnabel

message: Hello!  I too enjoyed this article very much.  A friend of mine is looking for the score of Schnabel's "Notturno für Singstimme und Klavier, nach einem Text von Richard Dehmel."  I've had no luck finding it in on World Cat (which probably means that no North American library has it).  Does anyone have any ideas about how to obtain it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Skrebs (talk • contribs) 17:30, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  looking for music 

message: The Schnabel Music Foundation's biography of Schnabel (viewable here) says that Schnabel was born in Lipnik, Moravia.  There is a town known as Lipník nad Bečvou in the Czech Republic's Olomouc Region (and the Wikipedia entry for the latter says that the Olomouc region corresponds to "the historical region of Moravia").  Could an authoritative source for identifying the birthplace as Lipnik, Poland, rather than Lipník nad Bečvou please be given?  Some clarification would be appreciated. Reihe (talk) 20:18, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: "I was born in a small Austrian village, which belonged to the Austrian part of Poland... my birthplace [Kunzendorf/Lipnik] was tiny and rather poor - a kind of suburb to a small town. This small town [Biala] was the twin to a larger town [Bielitz] which one reached over a bridge. The other town [Biala] belonged to the Austrian province of Silesia. Bielitz was the name of the largest, as long as it belonged to Austria; after the First World War it came to Poland and is now named Bielsko."
The Artur Schnabel exhibition at the Academie der Kuenste in Berlin in 2001 stated that Schnabel was born "in Lipnik in Bielitz in the Silesian part of the Austrian Empire (now Bielsko-Biala in Poland)". (Which is the correct summary, except that the German name for Lipnik was Kunzendorf, as it was called at the time of his birth. As Schnabel pointed out with Bielitz, the German placenames were changed over when it became Poland after the First World War with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.)
Hope that helps. --Whimsical Oracle (talk) 20:47, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Place of birth? 

message: I think the current article version is a good general essay on Schnabel, but there are some inaccurancies or misleading statements, eg.;
"Schnabel studied piano from the age of seven in Vienna under Theodor Leschetizky"
Actually, he had his first piano lessons at age 4, then at age 6 he was taught by a Professor Hans Schmitt in Vienna. He began studies with Leschetizky at aged 9, in 1891.
"...rather than playing the showy virtuoso pieces by composers like Franz Liszt which were popular in the late 19th century, he chose to concentrate on Germanic classics..."
This gives the impression to readers that he didn't play Liszt etc. Actually he did play Liszt in his prime before the war, until the 1930s when he dropped them from his repertoire to concentrate on the core Austro-Germanic classical composers. Arrau and Horowitz recalled hearing Schnabel performing the Liszt B minor sonata, the Mephisto waltz, the E-flat piano concerto (Schnabel himself mentions that in My Life And Music), as well as in other composers such as Chopin, Schumann, Weber, before the war. And Schnabel himself said, he was regarded as a Brahmsian before he was regarded as a Beethovenian.
"disregard his own technical limitations in pursuit of his musical ideals"
While it is true that, as with other great pianists, technical accuracy was less important to him than the bigger musical picture, the popularly held view that Schnabel was technically limited is debateable. This myth seems to have gained currency due to the well-known quip by Rosenthal that Schnabel had "no fingers", and also from his recordings of the 30s and 40s when he was past his prime. Arrau recalled Schnabel as being "flawless" before the 1930s, a view supported by Horowitz who heard Schnabel in a performance of the Chopin piano sonata no.2 and was mightily impressed by his technique in the final movement. A number of reasons have been suggested for Schnabel's evident deterioration in technique after the 1930s; eg. Arrau believed that it was because Schnabel was psychologically traumatized by being uprooted from his Germanic nourishing ground when he fled Germany in 1933 due to the rise of Nazism, while Horowitz thought Schnabel damaged his technique when he started playing too much Beethoven to the exclusion of everything else. 
I hope people don't mind if I rewrite the article to take account of the above points, as well as expand on the biography (with references of course).--Whimsical Oracle (talk) 23:53, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks Tony for your appreciation. I plan to do a lot more on it, but that's just a start. Kind regards, --Whimsical Oracle (talk) 14:53, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Article in need of improvement 

message: Someone has drastically watered down the introductory comments on Schnabel as a musician of world-class level. Saying that he is merely 'sometimes' considered to be a world-class pianist of the 20th century is absurd, as is simply saying that his performances of Beethooven and Schubert have been 'praised'. Far too weak! Most serious books and reference works on music rank Schnabel as one of the greats of pianism in the 20th century (see Groves, for example), and his performances of Beethoven's sonatas are not simply praised but regarded as legends and held by many experts as the touchstone 'by which all other performances are measured.' (Penguin Cassette Guide). I shall change the wording to an appropriate re-formulation accordingly. Anoot7 (talk) 02:36, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Intro Unjustly Watered Down 

message: I've just read this page and came across this statement at the end of the Repertoire section …
"Schnabel is known for his editions of the Beethoven piano sonatas in particular. His editions are widely considered to be the best and most informed. However, in Beethoven's Sonata op. 106 no. 29 he wrote in a repeated fingering (3-3) when it should clearly be (3-5). For this reason, Schnabel should henceforth be canceled."
Many questions arising from this …
1.  Who wrote it?
2.  What does "henceforth canceled" mean?
3.  Why should Schnabel be "henceforth canceled"?
4.  Does this violate Wikipedia policies?
I'm wondering if this was written in another language and this is a translation issue, or if it is a malicious edit.  This paragraph seems extreme to me.
Dalsegnomusic (talk) 02:13, 19 February 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Repertoire section - questioning the ending 

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thread_title:  Commons files used on this page or its Wikidata item have been nominated for speedy deletion