The Young Arrau
By Tim Snider
A child prodigy
The Chilean-born pianist Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) was one of the great artists of the keyboard of the 20th Century. At a young age, his prodigious talent was recognized by many. With financial support from the Chilean government, the young Arrau in 1911 was sent to Berlin with his family to study with the masters of the piano.
Study in Germany
In time he became a student of Martin Krause (1853-1918), who had played for Liszt in 1883 and was a mainstay of the Liszt Society in Leipzig. Until his untimely death, Krause became a mentor and father figure to the young Arrau (whose father had died while Arrau was an infant), directing his study and organizing his cultural education. Krause never accepted a fee from Arrau, accepting as a sacred duty the development of the young Arrau’s extraordinary talent.
Postwar fame
Arrau won a number of prestigious piano competitions in Europe and later joined the faculty of Berlin’s famous Stern Conservatory. His career flourished in particular after World War II, and he became one of the most recorded pianists of his day.
Most connoisseurs of the piano know him from his recitals of that period and, in particular, from his excellent recordings. He is remembered today as one of the most polished exponents of the “German school” of pianism. His recordings show an artist of refinement and distinction, even aristocratic in his approach. Arrau’s traversals of the music of Liszt, Beethoven, and Schumann are especially fine.
The recordings made before the war, however, reveal a different kind of artist.
The prewar recordings
These recordings were collected, remastered, and released on a superb recording by Ward Marston (Marston 52023-2). Except for the Schumann Carnaval, Op. 9, the pieces are all brief and typically highly virtuosic. They show an artist in the full flower of youth, with
These recordings were collected, remastered, and released on a superb recording by Ward Marston (Marston 52023-2). Except for the Schumann Carnaval, Op. 9, the pieces are all brief and typically highly virtuosic. They show an artist in the full flower of youth, with faultless technique, in full command of his interpretive skills, and willing to take risks.
Rare performances
Infamously demanding works such as Balakirev’s Islamey are tossed off with incredible ease. Four of the fearsomely difficult Paganini-Liszt Etudes (Nos. 2, 5, 1, and 6) present no technical obstacles. Arrau dropped many of the works performed on the disc from his repertoire, for example, Busoni’s Elegie No. 5 and the Sonatina No. 6 (the Chamber Fantasy on Carmen).
Early interpretations
The works of Liszt and Chopin remained at the core of Arrau’s repertoire, but the performances on this disc reveal a probing intelligence that became fully formed in his later recordings. Two selections from Années de pèlerinage, for example, allow the music to speak for itself, without any of the interpretive excesses that sometimes mar these works in the hands of a lesser artist.
Four Chopin Etudes are simply dazzling in their virtuosity, performances rivaled only by the legendary recording of these works by the legendary Maurizio Pollini. The young Arrau was simply one of the great technicians of the century. Later he became one of the century’s great artists.
Claudio Arrau
The Early Years: The Complete Pre-War Recordings
Marston Records 52023-2
2 CD Set
