Karl Ulrich Schnabel
Encyclopedia
Karl Ulrich Schnabel was an Austrian pianist
, and the son of pianist Artur Schnabel
and opera
tic contralto
and lied
er singer Therese Behr.
on August 6, 1909. He began studying piano at the age of five.
From 1922–1926 he studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik with Leonid Kreutzer
and Paul Juon
.
Although overshadowed by his father's achievement in expressing a new vision of the Classical repertory, Schnabel was still able to develop his own individual style of playing and a poetic insight. He sometimes played for his mother in her recitals and recordings and he is remembered for his imaginative interpretation of the Schubert
song cycles. He also made some distinguished recordings of Schubert piano duets with his father. In 1926 he made his recital début in Berlin, gave recitals throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand.
For several years, he was active producing motion pictures; in 1932, he was producer, director and cinematographer of a feature-length film based on a German fairy tale.
Schnabel left Berlin in 1933 when Adolf Hitler
came to power; he emigrated to the United States in 1939, shortly before World War II
. In the same year he married the American pianist Helen Fogel (1911-74) with whom he played a large repertory of piano duets. They had a daughter, Ann.
During World War II
he interrupted his musical career to do war work as head of an electronic laboratory in Massachusetts
.
After the war he became active again as a recitalist as well as an internationally renowned teacher of the piano. From 1947 on, he gave yearly international summer master courses at Lake Como
, Italy
. He taught master courses in England
, Scotland
, France
, Italy, Germany
, Austria
, Spain
, Israel
, Brazil
, Japan
, Australia
, New Zealand
, Canada
, and all over the United States
, including the Ravinia Festival. In 1940, he became head of all the instrumental departments at New York’s Dalcroze School. In later years he also became a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music. Pianists who have played in Schnabel's master classes include Murray Perahia
, Richard Goode
, Wyung Whon Chung, and Ursula Oppens
. His former students include Leon Fleisher
, Claude Frank
, and Peter Serkin
. Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition winners Edward Turgeon and Anne Louise-Turgeon studied with Karl Ulrich Schnabel. The last two Van Cliburn
competition winners, Stanislav Ioudenitch
(2001) and Jon Nakamatsu
(1997) studied with Karl-Ulrich Schnabel as well.
Schabel wrote the book Modern Technique of the Pedal (1950). It has been translated from the original English into Italian, Korean, and Chinese and other languages. His editions of compositions by Schubert and Weber
were also published. Later in life he taught numerous master classes at Mills College
in Oakland, California
.
Schnabel made many recordings, solo and four-hand, for HMV, EMI, Philips, Musical Heritage Society, and Town Hall among others. In addition to his distinguished solo performance career, Schnabel excelled as an accompanist. In 1956 he and his wife participated at the Holland Festival in five performances with orchestra and in 1972 at the Edinburgh Festival
. Four years after his wife's death he formed a new duo with the Canadian pianist Joan Rowland.
His extra-musical interests included rock-climbing and photography. As a young man, he competed in table tennis tournaments. While still in Berlin he set up an elaborate miniature electric train set for which he even devised timetables. Schnabel's friend, the composer Paul Hindemith
, participated in running the train set.
Karl-Ulrich Schnabel died in Danbury, Connecticut, on August 27, 2001. He was buried in the family plot in Schwyz
, Switzerland
, adjoining his parents and wife.
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, and the son of pianist Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...
and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
and lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er singer Therese Behr.
Biography
Karl Schnabel was born in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
on August 6, 1909. He began studying piano at the age of five.
From 1922–1926 he studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik with Leonid Kreutzer
Leonid Kreutzer
Leonid Kreutzer was a classical pianist.Kreutzer was born to a family of German Jewish parents. He was a highly influential piano teacher at the Berlin Academy of Music , together with Egon Petri...
and Paul Juon
Paul Juon
Paul Juon was a Germanised Russian composerHe was born in Moscow, where his father was an insurance official. His mother was German, and he went to a German school in Moscow. He entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1889, where he studied violin with Jan Hřímalý and composition with Anton Arensky...
.
Although overshadowed by his father's achievement in expressing a new vision of the Classical repertory, Schnabel was still able to develop his own individual style of playing and a poetic insight. He sometimes played for his mother in her recitals and recordings and he is remembered for his imaginative interpretation of the Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
song cycles. He also made some distinguished recordings of Schubert piano duets with his father. In 1926 he made his recital début in Berlin, gave recitals throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand.
For several years, he was active producing motion pictures; in 1932, he was producer, director and cinematographer of a feature-length film based on a German fairy tale.
Schnabel left Berlin in 1933 when Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
came to power; he emigrated to the United States in 1939, shortly before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In the same year he married the American pianist Helen Fogel (1911-74) with whom he played a large repertory of piano duets. They had a daughter, Ann.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he interrupted his musical career to do war work as head of an electronic laboratory in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
After the war he became active again as a recitalist as well as an internationally renowned teacher of the piano. From 1947 on, he gave yearly international summer master courses at Lake Como
Lake Como
Lake Como is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. He taught master courses in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Italy, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and all over the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, including the Ravinia Festival. In 1940, he became head of all the instrumental departments at New York’s Dalcroze School. In later years he also became a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music. Pianists who have played in Schnabel's master classes include Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia KBE is an American concert pianist and conductor.-Early life:Murray Perahia was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to a family of Sephardi Jewish origin. According to the biography on his Mozart piano sonatas CD, his first language was Judaeo-Spanish or, Ladino. The family...
, Richard Goode
Richard Goode
Richard Goode is an American classical pianist, especially known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven and chamber music.Goode was born in East Bronx, New York...
, Wyung Whon Chung, and Ursula Oppens
Ursula Oppens
Ursula Oppens is an American classical pianist.-Biography:After earning her master's degree from the Juilliard School of Music, Oppens won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1968. This win led to her New York City debut at Carnegie Hall in 1969...
. His former students include Leon Fleisher
Leon Fleisher
Leon Fleisher is an American pianist and conductor.-Early life and studies:Fleisher was born in San Francisco, where he started studying the piano at age four...
, Claude Frank
Claude Frank
Claude Frank is a German-born, American Jewish pianist whose career has included appearances with highly reputed orchestras, at major festivals, and in major recital halls around the world...
, and Peter Serkin
Peter Serkin
-Biography:He was born in New York City and is the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene had married Rudolf Serkin...
. Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition winners Edward Turgeon and Anne Louise-Turgeon studied with Karl Ulrich Schnabel. The last two Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War....
competition winners, Stanislav Ioudenitch
Stanislav Ioudenitch
Stanislav Ioudenitch , is a pianist from the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan. He was a Gold Medalist at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001, tying for first place with Olga Kern...
(2001) and Jon Nakamatsu
Jon Nakamatsu
Jon Yasuhiro Nakamatsu is a Japanese American classical pianist who still resides in San Jose but mostly performs away from home. He is the son of David Y. Nakamatsu and Karen F. Maeda Nakamatsu .In June 1997 Nakamatsu won the Gold Medal at the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition...
(1997) studied with Karl-Ulrich Schnabel as well.
Schabel wrote the book Modern Technique of the Pedal (1950). It has been translated from the original English into Italian, Korean, and Chinese and other languages. His editions of compositions by Schubert and Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
were also published. Later in life he taught numerous master classes at Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
.
Schnabel made many recordings, solo and four-hand, for HMV, EMI, Philips, Musical Heritage Society, and Town Hall among others. In addition to his distinguished solo performance career, Schnabel excelled as an accompanist. In 1956 he and his wife participated at the Holland Festival in five performances with orchestra and in 1972 at the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. Four years after his wife's death he formed a new duo with the Canadian pianist Joan Rowland.
His extra-musical interests included rock-climbing and photography. As a young man, he competed in table tennis tournaments. While still in Berlin he set up an elaborate miniature electric train set for which he even devised timetables. Schnabel's friend, the composer Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, participated in running the train set.
Karl-Ulrich Schnabel died in Danbury, Connecticut, on August 27, 2001. He was buried in the family plot in Schwyz
Schwyz
The town of is the capital of the canton of Schwyz in Switzerland.The Federal Charter of 1291 or Bundesbrief, the charter that eventually led to the foundation of Switzerland, can be seen at the Bundesbriefmuseum.-History of the toponym:...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, adjoining his parents and wife.
Sources
- William Glock. The New Grove Dictionary of OperaNew Grove Dictionary of OperaThe New Grove Dictionary of Opera is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes....
, edited by Stanley Sadie (1992), ISBN 0-333-73432-7 and ISBN 1-56159-228-5 - web site of the web site of the Schnabel Music Foundation