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Those unfamiliar with Artur Schnabel (1882-1951) will perhaps be somewhat irritated by the book´s title. Is a pianist not per se a musician? Not necessarily, according to Schnabel. The artist himself propagated his Viennese teacher´s half-joking claim that Schnabel would never become a pianist since he is a musician.
What was intended as an entertaining remark became for Schnabel a lifelong artistic maxim. He wanted to be a facilitator between composer and listener and deplored the common practice he often observed of performers misusing music as a mere venue to display their virtuosic skills at the keyboard. Based on his comprehensive background knowledge, Schnabel founded a worldwide renowned school of piano performance. His concert activities, recordings, music editions and lectures have not only influenced musical thought to the present day, but have had a lasting effect on our concert life.

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Grünzweig, Werner
musicologist and director of the music archives at the Academy of the Arts, has edited various publications as well as an extensive exhibition catalogue about Artur Schnabel. The German edition of the present volume was the first biography of Schnabel to be published in the German language - and the first biography to appear since the 1957 publication in English of Cesar Saerchinger´s book, "Artur Schnabel. A Biography".

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