Artur Schnabel plays Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto 'live' in 1947

The Piano Files
The Piano Files
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Published 2020-06-14
A recording of a November 17th 1947 concert of Artur Schnabel playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.4 in G Major with Izler Solomon conducting the Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra.

The performance was recorded privately for the conductor on yellow-labeled lacquers. Because the discs had suffered some water damage on account of poor storage, several portions were unplayable. For those sections, producer Allan Evans and transfer engineer Seth Winner patched the gaps with the relevant sections of Schnabel's 1942 RCA recording with the Chicago Symphony.

This rare broadcast performance was released on disc only once, on a Pearl CD set also featuring Schnabel's 1930s studio accounts of the complete Beethoven Concertos with Malcolm Sargent conducting. Schnabel would rerecord Concerti 2 through 5 in the late 1940s in London, as well as 4 and 5 in 1942 in Chicago. A 1945 concert performance of the Third Concerto conducted by Szell circulated quite widely but the Pearl set is the only release I know of featuring this traversal of the Fourth.

It is worth noting that the slow movement in this concert performance is significantly longer than in Schnabel's studio accounts: 6:50, whereas the 1942 RCA version is 5:29 and the 1946 EMI version is 4:55. This gives an idea of how the time constraints set by the limited length of 78rpm discs impacted some of the pianist's interpretative inclinations.

Schnabel's playing throughout is glorious, with a truly luminescent sonority, marvellous pedal effects, rhythmic vitality, and wonderful interplay with the orchestra - a truly heartfelt and inspired performance.

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All Comments (21)
  • @bryndonhassman4166
    One of the many things I love about Schnabel is the frequent illustrations of his particular musical philosophies in his playing. He would say "the first note of an ascending or descending scale is already the beginning of the ascension or decension." You can hear this throughout this performance but a great example of it is at 12:46. Absolutely no accents at the beginnings of scales!
  • @daviddemers9093
    Oh my God! Mr. Serkin was always my hero in this concerto, but now I'm in tears hearing this amazingly beautiful performance by Schnabel. Serkin was 44 years old when this recording was made and I'm devastated not to be able to discuss what I'm hearing with him! He must have heard this recording at some point at any rate. What a sublime performance. It's heartbreaking.
  • @racheloliver17
    A great performance of my favorite Beethoven's concertos. I performed it several times in my youth w/different orchestras in Israel and in the US. Thanks so much for posting it and also the interesting details about the production. The slow movement gave me the goosebumps :):):)
  • @nairigrigorian
    Maravilloso!!!!! a big hug for you dearest The Piano Files
  • @hinashiotsuka
    That's excellent✨💖I am very happy to hear the performance of the great pianist. thank you very much!
  • @ThePianoenergy
    Absolutely wonderful, thank you very much for this upload!
  • @carrieruggieri8000
    Transcendent! I feel like I am right there - literally, inside the piano
  • @kanekokazuko7034
    シュナーベルさんは、私が生まれた1951年に亡くなられたかたなのですね。貴重で見事な演奏に感動致しました。有り難うございます。
  • @MichaelLu
    Wow!!! Thank you so much for sharing this!