With Mieczyslaw Horszowski playing in public at the age of 95, Magda Tagliaferra at 92 (she was born in 1893), Rubinstein at 88, Serkin at 85 (he celebrates this birthday next month) and Horowitz at 84, the mere fact of an international pianist playing in his mid-80s has become - dare one say it? - an almost commonplace occurrence. But 85 is, by any standards (not least those of a performing artist) a venerable age, one which affords us the opportunity of paying tribute to an undoubtedly great pianist in the final years of his career.
Arrau in 1977
Arrau's eminence as a player of world stature has to be considered against his background, for he was born, on February 6th 1903, in Chillan, the capital of Nuble Province in South Central Chile, itself located in Chile's central valley as a leading agricultural and commercial centre. We tend to expect - even today, considering how many fine young artists hail from the Orient - that great pianists, especially those who excel in the central German-European repertoire, almost ought to be European by birth, but Arrau is, of course, Chilean. Indeed, in the field of music, it is difficult to name a more distinguished 20th-century practitioner in the art throughout the entire South American continent than Claudio Arrau.
He received his very early instruction in piano-playing from his mother, who was a talented amateur musician, and who discerned her son's musical gifts when he was barely able to speak. When still a child, Arrau gave his first public recital in the Chilean capital, Santiago, playing music by Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin - three of the comparatively few composers with whom we tend to link his name today. It would appear that even at that very early age, his natural musical inclinations were already formed.
Formed they may have been, but it takes more than talent and inclination to make a great artist. Occasionally, it also takes luck, and Arrau showed himself to possess that when, as a direct result of the recital the Chilean Government was persuaded to fund the boy's further teaching in Berlin. Not only that, but also as an additional mark of quite exceptional altruism, the Government provided funds for the entire Arrau family to move to Berlin and live with their son for several years until his training was completed.
And so, at the age of 11, Arrau arrived in Germany, where he began studies with Martin Krause at the Stern Conservatoire in Berlin. Krause was a remarkable musician: a fine pianist and teacher, he was born near Leipzig in 1853, and at the age of 30, played before Liszt for the first time. Liszt was impressed and for the three years until the master's death in 1886 Krause was constantly in touch with Liszt and his pupils, either personally or by letter, several of whom, in conjunction with Krause, helped to found the Lisztverein in 1885. Krause became the chairman of this institute, until it was disbanded in 1900. Quite clearly, Krause's pedigree was considerable, and as a consequence of studying exclusively with Krause (the lessons began just before the outbreak of World War I in August 1914), Arrau had entered a central shrine of classical pianism. The musical lineage can be traced - through Krause-Liszt-Czerny-Beethoven - and it must not be thought that this is some kind of sentimental gimmick, a mere combination of circumstances that has no musical value other than to pedants, for it can surely be no coincidence that Arrau's international reputation as a leading interpreter of Beethoven is the result of his own response to this pedigree.
Martin Krause died, aged 65, in1918, when Arrau was15, by which time the older man's influence had clearly been made. Already, in 1914 and 1915, Arrau had played in Germany and in Scandinavia; following Krause's death, Arrau undertook no further formal instruction. He was certainly, despite his age, becoming a young man to watch. When he eventually returned to Chile in 1921 at 18 he was an accomplished master, and his reception both there and elsewhere in South America was totally enthusiastic.
When Arrau was 20 he made his first appearance in the USA, part of a tour which included his debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Montaux and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During the following year he succeeded Krause as a member of the facility of the Stern Conservatoire in Berlin. It was from this time that Arrau's European reputation began in earnest. In 1927 Arrau won the Grand Prix International des Pianistes in Geneva; almost as a direct result, his legendary reputation for hard work led him to accept a number of important tours and engagements which confirmed his growing reputation. At about this time, the young pianist began to make his first recordings, of which one - Liszt's "The Fountains of the Villa d 'Este" (no. 3 of the Third Year of the "Annİes de Pelerinage") has never been surpassed on disc in the last 60 years. This is one of the greatest solo piano recordings eve r made. If you do not know it, I strongly urge you to seek it out, for any doubts you may harbour regarding Arrau's greatness as a pianist will be disabused by this astonishing recording.
In 1929 Arrau made his first tour of Russia, and was immediately invited back for a second visit the following year. Back in Berlin in 1935 he gave the complete keyboard works of J. S. Bach during an entire season comprising 12 recitals. The following year also in Berlin he repeated the undertaking with the complete solo piano works of Mozart in five recitals. Such "marathon" appearances were by no means uncommon in the 1930s, whether in popular or classical music, and in 1938 Arrau undertook an even larger repertoire: all 32 piano sonatas and all five piano concertos of Beethoven in Mexico City. He repeated this marathon series in Buenos Aires and in Santiago in 1939, but by then the storm clouds of War were gathering over Europe. It was apparent that a new World War would not be avoided. Arrau was unwilling to remain in Berlin, and in1941 he eventually settled in New York City, where he quickly became a welcome permanent addition to the American concert scene, as well as to its pedagogical one, for Arrau accepted pupils in his newly adopted country.
The US record-company giants RCA and CBS vied to secure his services, and Arrau made some fine (and perhaps surprising - in view of the repertoire) 78rpm recordings for both companies, to add to his pre-war Polydor albums of a fine Balakirev "lslamey" and Schumann "Carneval". For RCA he recorded sets of Beethoven's F major (op 34) and "Eroica" (op 35) Variations, two Mozart Sonatas (K 283 and K 576), Weber's First (C major) Sonata op 24 and Konzerstuck in F minor op 79 (the latter with the Chicago Symphony under Desirİ Defauw). The Konzerstuck was coupled (in a 4-disc 78 rpm album) with Richard Strauss's "Burleske"; a more popular Concerto Arrau recorded for RCA on 78s was Schumann's with the Detroit Symphony under Karl Kreuger. For CBS, perhaps the most remarkable album was a 5-disc 78rpm set of the complete "lberia" by Albeniz - which was reissued on one long-play album in 1950 - repertoire not normally associated with this artist, but in result one of his finest recorded performances. The remaining CBS material was less unusual: Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata and Third Concerto (with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra); Chopin's op 28 Preludes complete (another outstanding set, not quite equalled by his later Philips remake) and op 22 Andante Spianato (in the orchestral version, with the Little Orchestra conducted by Thomas Scherman) ; Schumann 's "Kreisleriana" (an outstanding set) and Liszt's First Concerto and Hungarian Fantasia also with Ormandy in Philadelphia.
In the early 1950s Arrau also began recording for the Brunswick company in the United States. Principally, nothing less than a complete Chopin edition was planned but for a variety of reasons this was never completed: indeed, it hardly got beyond the first few long-playing records. Artistically, it did not reveal Arrau in the best light, and also the technical quality of the recordings was not outstanding. However, specialists in piano records might well wish to seek out these Brunswick albums, for they are now exceptionally rare, and consequently valuable.
But with this growing catalogue of internationally-released recordings, combined with his not infrequent post-war international tours (in 1947 a major tour of Australia; in 1949 a similar visit to South Africa; in 1951 a tour of Israel and in 1956 a first tour of the Indian sub-continent) made Arrau an enviable world-wide reputation which was reinforced with the first exclusive long-term recording contract he had had, with the English Columbia Company. Signed to this branch of EMI by the legendary Walter Legge, Arrau soon embarked upon a major series of recordings: Beethoven Sonatas and Concertos dominated his recorded repertoire during the middle and late1950s and early 1960s for English Columbia, recordings notable for their outstanding combination of musical genius and technical perfection. There are some great things in EMl's vaults by this artist, but many have long since disappeared from the catalogues. Many, also, were mono only recordings, although that is not such a disadvantage in solo piano albums.
However, his signing by the Dutch giant Philips in the early 1960s marked the final and most significant step in his recording career, for during the last quarter-century Arrau has re-recorded most of his early material, almost invariably in finer interpretations and certainly invariably in incomparably better technical sound. Not only has he re-recorded the Beethoven Concertos again (with Haitink and the Concertgebouw Orchestra) for Philips, but has undertaken a third set (with Sir Colin Davis and the Dresden Staatskapelle) for the company. He has recorded a complete set of the Beethoven Sonatas (and has re-recorded several yet again recently), and an extensive Schumann and Chopin series, as well as Mozart, and the standard concertos of Schumann, Grieg and Tchaikovsky. It is, therefore, with the classical Viennese repertoire, and the highpoints of early Romanticism, that Arrau's name is now almost invariably linked, and, at 85, he can thankfully look back with gratitude to the Philips company (as, indeed, so can we) for permitting him to commit to permanent record form his interpretations of this major repertoire. It is, perhaps, to be regretted that Philips did not bother to tape Arrau in Messiaen (a composer whose music he has also championed), or other composers, but Arrau's greatness stems from the unbroken line that he, through Krause, and Liszt, can trace back by only three "generations" directly to Beethoven himself. No other South American pianist of this century has achieved so much as Claudio Arrau, and it is fitting that he has received many honours from most of the Latin-American countries. His birthplace, Chillan, now has a street named after him.
It is not just in his recordings that we can measure Arrau's musicianship; for Peters Edition, he has supervised the Urtext edition of the complete Beethoven Sonatas - a valuable contribution to recent classical musical scholarship. But, as he said in an illuminating short essay which accompanied the boxed set edition of his complete Beethoven Sonatas:
"For me, Beethoven has always stood for the spirit of man victorious. His message of endless struggle concluding in the victory of renewal and spiritual rebirth, speaks to us and to young people today with a force that is particularly relevant to our times. "In the sense that his life was an existential fight for survival, Beethoven is our contemporary. In the sense that he mastered both his life and his art to reach the ultimate heights of creation and transfiguration, he will last as long as man's spirit to prevail lasts upon earth.
"Once, when trying to explain what was so great about Furtwangler as an interpreter, I said that he had the power of divination. That is precisely what it takes to realise Beethoven in all his depths and grandeur.
"When Beethoven said 'I write notes out of necessity', he made it quite clear from what depths his music arose. It therefore takes great power of empathy to understand his music. In Beethoven interpretation it is of the utmost importance to open one's self up to the intuitive forces of one's own being, to the unconscious as much as to the conscious, to relinquish the fear of committing oneself emotionally, to accept the agony of feeling which is in Beethoven - in order to be able to reveal the essence of Beethoven '' At an age when most people would be merely grateful to survive as best they can, Arrau's performances today continue to reveal this essence - not only of Beethoven, literally his musical great-great-grandfather, but also of the other masters of whose music he has made a lifetime's study, for his, and our, deep and profound illumination.
Robert Matthew-Walker
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