Claudio Arrau

(b Chillán, 6 Feb 1903; d Mürzzuschlag, 9 June 1991). Chilean pianist. After a dé but in Santiago at the age of live he went to study in Berlin. His international career began in 1918, with a London début in 1922 and a tour of the USA in 1923. He taught in Berlin (1925-40) and later settled in New York. While his thoughtful interpretations of the Romantic repertory were much admired, it was in Beethoven that his intellectually powerful playing had fullest scope.

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Musical genius, prodigy, and boy wonder are some of the words most often used to describe Claudio Arrau (1903-1991). Regarded by many music critics as a master interpreter and impassioned artist, Arrau enjoyed a stellar, if sometimes unorthodox, career that spanned over 80 years. Arrau was born on February 6, 1903, in Chillan, Chile. His father died less than 12 months after he was born, but his mother, an amateur pianist, recognized and nurtured his musical genius and became his first teacher.

Chilean legend says that Arrau could read music before he could read words. He made his formal performing debut in Chile at the age of five, playing selections composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Frederic Chopin. It became clear long before he reached ten years of age that his talents surpassed those of the available teachers and that his musical education would require the molding of a master mentor. In 1912 Arrau was sent to study with Martin Krause at the Stern Konservatorie in Berlin at the expense of the Chilean government.

It was through Krause that Arrau was first linked to the music of Beethoven in what would prove to be a profound lifelong musical and spiritual connection. Arrau's life was threaded to the composer's through a direct line of four teachers: Beethoven taught Karl Czerney, who taught Franz Liszt, who taught Krause. Once Arrau left Chile, Krause was his only teacher.

Young Arrau's introduction to the European concert scene came early. He performed before royalty and in salons and in 1914, at the age of 11, made his formal recital debut in Berlin, marking the official start of his career as a solo pianist. In 1922 he made his London debut in a recital with Dame Nellie Melba and the violinist Branislaw Hubermann.

Life in Berlin provided Arrau with the opportunity to bathe in the richness of European culture. Arrau considered it the duty of every great artist to become not only proficient in his or her field of expertise, but also to know as much as possible about all art - painting, sculpture, literature, and theater. He collected Etruscan and pre-Columbian art and was knowledgeable about European classic literature. Arrau felt that his appreciation of the wide range of arts and culture helped inform his interpretations of the music he played. Arrau's concert schedule, which over the course of his life took him all around the globe, enabled him to indulge in his interest in the world around him. Whether in Europe, America, Australia, South Africa, Israel, India, or Japan, the young pianist studied the local art and culture and collected artifacts.

Martin Krause died in 1918, when Arrau was in his late teens, an event that deeply shook the young musician. Arrau was further rocked in 1923 and 1924 by a disastrous U.S. reception on his first tour there. Performing with the Boston Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony, Arrau found that U.S. acceptance of his style and work came slowly. Mournful about the loss of his mentor and concerned about maintaining his career, Arrau experienced a period of emotional, artistic, and financial insecurity. He eventually found a psychological and spiritual mentor in Jungian analyst Dr. Hubert Abrahamsohn, with whom he remained close throughout his life.

Arrau adhered to Carl Jung's notion of the "collective unconscious" in which the psychologist posits that the same universal aspects of human experience lie dormant in all people, clothed in symbolism, waiting to be exposed, felt, and lived. Arrau willingly underwent analysis throughout his life because he believed that if he could tap into his unconscious he could set in motion powerful creativity. He remained humble within this context, acknowledging his creativity as something available to all humans, his talent a gift.

Arrau's accomplishments and the honors he received throughout his career were myriad. In 1927 he won the International Prize for Pianists in Geneva, which helped build his early reputation as a Bach pianist. This link to the composer became firmly established in 1935 when Arrau completed the entire cycle of Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard works. After completing the cycle, though, he decided that the harpsichord was the most appropriate instrument on which to play Bach's works and chose not to play them again. He did, however, find this cyclical approach to composers' works satisfying. For example, he played a cycle of Beethoven's works in Mexico City in 1938 and later did the same with compositions by Mozart and Franz Schubert.

Arrau married soprano Ruth Schneider in 1940 and shortly thereafter left Germany to live in New York City. He and his wife had children after moving to the United States. Although he lived there for years, he did not become a naturalized U.S. citizen until 1979.

Arrau's Mastery Acknowledged

In 1991, New York Times music critic Donal Henahan called Arrau's musical contributions "exemplary," noting in particular his detailed interpretations of Beethoven. "Arrau played a great deal of 19th-century music with great virtuosity and insight, but also with a well-tailored refinement that prompted critics early in his career to characterize his style as 'aristocratic,' a somewhat misleading label that stuck with him."

But Arrau was not merely a traditionalist. In fact, his musical taste and affinities varied greatly. Although primarily considered a Beethoven specialist, he also played the modern music of Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Ferruccio Busoni before they achieved fame in their own right. Whatever the composition, music critics found that Arrau's playing was marked by a thoughtfulness and consideration of detail not often evident in others' work.

Arrau was also regarded by many as a man of particularly sensitive and passionate temperament. He found it difficult, and often emotionally painful, to live up to the expectations thrust upon him by the public, the artistic and financial communities, and himself. Because he was so focused on his emotional life, he was considered by some to be temperamental. He would on occasion cancel performances if he felt that his spiritual affinity to a piece was out of balance.

In addition to his musical talents, Arrau was a man of great political passion and conscience. On one occasion he performed a benefit concert that raised $190,000 in contributions for Amnesty International's campaign for the release of political prisoners around the world. In addition, he refused to play in his native Chile for years in protest against the Marxist government of Salvadore Allende and later that of the right-wing military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. He did return to his homeland in 1981, though, arriving to a hero's welcome. The Chilean government declared a day of national mourning when he died. A nephew reported at the time that Arrau had claimed that, while his mind and intellect belonged to Germany, his heart was still with Chile.

Although Arrau was a dedicated teacher for many years, in his later life he became disillusioned with teaching because he saw a trend in the musical world towards placing an emphasis on technique rather than the personal development of the artist. He was committed to the notion that a pianist not only had to know myriad aspects of culture to be a well-rounded artist, but also must know him or herself emotionally. Arrau felt that many of his students were unwilling to take such steps. Still, he found comfort in having chosen and adhered to his own personal path of growth and exploration.

Arrau gave up performing after his wife died in 1989. He had been scheduled to perform a recital, his first in three years, when he died on June 9, 1991, in Murzzuschlag, Austria, at the age of 88 after undergoing intestinal surgery. He is best remembered for his personalized interpretations of the work of some of the greatest piano masters of all time, as well as his willful artistic spirit.

Books

The Annual Obituary, 1991, edited by Deborah Andrews, St. James Press, 1992.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 1, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980.

Newsmakers, Gale Research, 1992.

Periodicals

New York Times, June 16, 1991.

• Born: February 06, 1903 in Chillán, Chile
• Died: June 09, 1991 in Mürzzuschlag, Austria

Biography

A patrician artist whose matinee-idol appearance was as elegant as his playing, Claudio Arrau achieved a major reputation for his performances of Brahms and Liszt. Indeed, few Romantic-period composers, from Beethoven onward, were beyond his grasp. In addition to that repertory, his Debussy was regarded by many connoisseurs as exemplary. Arrau believed that his abiding interest in psychoanalysis aided him in probing the intent of those whose works he performed. Certainly, Arrau's performances were marked by a balance between heart and intellect.

Arrau was born in Chillán, Chile, on February 6, 1903. He received piano instruction from his mother at an early age, making his debut performance in Santiago at the age of five playing Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin. At the age of 10 the Chilean government sent him to Berlin, where he enrolled in Stern's Conservatory of Music. His teacher there was Martin Krause. While studying he entered competitions, and won the Ibach Prize and the Gustav Holländer Medal. He also began giving recitals in Germany and Scandinavia, earning excited comment over the excellence of his technique, and the maturity of his interpretations. In 1918 he made a major European tour, giving concertos accompanied by illustrious conductors such as Nikisch, Furtwängler, and Mengelberg. He returned to South America in 1921, and made a triumphal tour beginning in Santiago de Chile. He made his first North American tour in 1924, appearing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He joined the faculty of the Stern Conservatory in 1924. He won the Grand Prix Internationale des Pianistes in Geneva in 1927, and toured in the Soviet Union in 1929, and again in 1930.

He continued a notable concertizing career throughout the 1930s, including a famous series in 1935 and 1936 in Berlin, in which he played the complete keyboard works of J.S. Bach followed by the complete keyboard works of Mozart. He then announced that he would no longer play Bach, asserting that his music was not conceived for the modern grand piano. In 1938 he played all of the Beethoven piano sonatas and five piano concertos in a series of recitals in Mexico City, and repeated the feat during the next two years in Buenos Aires and Santiago. When World War II broke out he ended his association with the Stern Conservatory and returned to Chile, founding a piano school there. But the next year, after a tour of the United States where he received the highest critical acclaim, he and his family moved permanently to New York. He devoted himself to concertizing, teaching, and recording. His complete Beethoven cycles became legendary; in 1952 he performed such a series, in which each recital was broadcast live by the BBC.

After World War II his concert tours included Australia, Czechoslovakia, Romania, India, South Africa, Israel, and Japan. In the 1960s he made definitive recordings of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas; he also supervised the editing and publication of an Urtext edition of the same sonatas. In the 1970s, Chile, which had enjoyed a record as one of South America's most democratic nations, fell to the military government of Pinochet. In protest, Arrau gave up his Chilean citizenship in 1978, and became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, he continued to be a revered figure in Chile; in 1983 he was awarded the Chilean National Arts Prize. He returned at the age of 81 to tour Chile in 1984, his first performances there in 17 years. He died in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, on June 9, 1991. ~ AMG, All Music Guide

Discography

Liszt: The Piano Concertos; 3 Etudes de Concert Buy this CD	Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" Buy this CD	Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" Buy this CD	His First Studio Recording Buy this CD	Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Buy this CD
Chopin: Études Op.10 & Op.25; Trois Nouvelles Études Buy this CD	Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1; Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Songs; Hungarian Rhapsodies Buy this CD	Claudio Arrau Plays Liszt, Schumann, Debussy Buy this CD	Schumann: Carnaval; Kinderszenen; Waldszenen Buy this CD	Liszt: Etudes (12) D'Execution Transcendante Buy this CD

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