Artur Schnabel's recordings of Beethoven's piano sonatas
The Austrian pianist Artur Schnabel was the first pianist to record all of Ludwig van Beethoven's32 piano sonatas. The recordings were made in Abbey Road Studios in London on a C. Bechstein grand piano from 1932 to 1935, seven years after electrical recording was invented. Originally recorded on 78 rpmphonograph records for the His Master's Voicerecording label, the recordings have since been reissued numerous times on both LP and CD. In 1932, HMV launched the Beethoven Society ; its objective was to issue recordings of the complete sonatas by Schnabel to advance subscribers. Although Schnabel had refused to make recordings for years, he agreed to take on the project. The undertaking began in January 1932, when the Sonata No. 31 in A major was the first sonata to be successfully recorded. The final recordings were made in November 1935, with the project culminating with a recording of the Sonata No. 25 in G major. The Beethoven Society began distributing Schnabel's recordings of the sonatas in March 1932, issuing a total of twelve volumes through 1937. Independently of the Beethoven Society series of recordings, Schnabel also recorded the Sonata No. 30 in E major and Sonata No. 32 in C minor in 1942 for RCA Records and the first movement of the Sonata No. 14 in C minor in 1947 but which was never issued on record. The recordings continue to amass universal recognition and have received numerous honors. In 1937, Gramophone wrote of the recordings: "To technical mastery Schnabel adds and fuses an intensely intelligent, not merely 'intellectual' mind... The result is a perfectly blended interpretation of the music as a spiritual expression and as a musical organism." In 1986, Tim Page, writing in The New York Times, noted that Schnabel's "historic" recordings are "the standard by which all subsequent performances have been judged". In 2014, William Robin of The New Yorker wrote that Schnabel "remains the eminent Beethoven interpreter on record" when discussing his recordings of the piano sonatas. The recordings were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1975 and into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2018.
Background
was an Austrian pianist and composer who is considered to be among the greatest and most important musicians of the 20th century. Schnabel continues to be celebrated particularly for his performances of Beethoven and Schubert. Proclaimed by the American music critic, journalist, and writer on music Harold C. Schonberg as "the man who invented Beethoven", Schnabel's pedagogical lineage included Beethoven himself. When he was around ten years old, he began studying with Theodor Leschetizky, who was a student of Carl Czerny. Czerny was Beethoven's student, in addition to being his close friend and assistant. In 1927, on the occasion of the centenary of Beethoven's death, Schnabel performed all 32 Beethoven piano sonatasfor the first time in a series of seven recitals at the theatre of the Volksbühne in Berlin. He performed the complete cycle three more times in his life; in London in 1934, at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1934, and at the Berliner Philharmonie from 1932 to 1933. Schnabel witnessed the development of the technology of sound reproduction throughout his life; the player piano, the radio, and the phonograph record were all invented during his lifetime. In 1905, he recorded several piano rolls on a Welte-Mignon, including works of Chopin, Bach, Schubert, Brahms, Weber, and Josef Strauss. These are Schnabel's first known recordings, albeit not of sound. A few weeks after making the piano rolls, Schnabel wrote in the Welte Autograph Book: "With the artistic excellence of the Welte-Mignon, the extreme limits of possibility in the mechanical reproduction of music appear to have been reached.... Instead of all traces of his art disappearing with the last note played, the Pianist has now the consoling certainty that his performances will survive him." About a year later, Ludwig Hupfeld placed another reproducing piano on the German market. Schnabel also made several rolls on this new instrument, including a Chopin etude, a Schumann romance, and a Weber rondo. In 1922, Schnabel made rolls on an American Piano Company instrument during his first American tour as part of a contractual obligation. In addition to works of Bach, Brahms, Schubert, and Weber, he recorded two pieces of Beethoven. The Great Depression struck shortly after Schnabel's first performances of the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in Berlin’s Volksbühne. As a result, record companies experienced a drop in sales. The British record label His Master's Voice made plans to release "Society" recordings, where wealthier classical music consumers could obtain recordings of "works or groups of musical works that appeal in the first instance more cultivated than to the general musical taste" by advance subscription. In 1929, Schnabel was approached by Fred Gaisberg, the artists' representative of Gramophone Company, the parent company of HMV. Gaisberg put forward a proposal to record all the works that Beethoven had written for the piano. Before this proposal was made, Schnabel had refused to make records for years. He said that recordings went "against the very nature of performance, for the nature of performance is to happen but once, to be absolutely ephemeral and unrepeatable." However, Schnabel would eventually choose to take on the project, and the Beethoven Society was formed, via which the records would be sold. The Beethoven Society was established less than a year after the Hugo Wolf Society, which produced recordings of songs by Hugo Wolf, was created in 1931. In mid-January, Schnabel tested the gramophone for the first time. He reported that the tests produced records that were "ugly in sound" but "musically satisfactory", which Cesar Saerchinger noted was "a seemingly curious distinction for a man who was praised throughout his career for his beautiful tone." In early February, Schnabel signed his contract.
Recording and production
Principal recording of the complete sonatas for HMV took place from January 1932 to November 1935, with touch-up recording made to several sonatas in 1937. All of the sonatas were recorded in Abbey Road Studios's Studio No. 3 with Schnabel playing a C. Bechstein grand piano. The recordings were made on 78 rpm discs with each side holding approximately four minutes of music; "suitable breaks in the music, where one side ends and the next begins, had to be carefully worked out". The first recording session took place on 21 January 1932. The Piano Sonata No. 31 in A major was completed that day. Schnabel also recorded two other sonatas that day, but problems related to the side-break placements prevented him from completing them successfully; they were finished later. Concurrently with the sonatas, Schnabel also recorded all five Beethoven piano concertos under the baton of Sir Malcolm Sargent.
