Unheard Arrau from 1935
mainOne of the greats, hardly noticed any more.
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Disagree. Arrau is regularly on the airwaves where I live.
Agreed, Arrau remains visible and marketed with lots of reissue sets. Not the presence of Richter or Horowitz, but far from hardly noticed, IMO.
I just hope that Richter will never be forgotten!
The Arrau standard.
Thank you Mr. Lebrecht.
“May 1935 Radio Broadcast
Orchester des Reichssenders Berlin, Hans Rosbaud”
Berlin, 1935?
Did they all go and break a few windows on the way home after the performance?
Unbelievably, Arrau remained in Germany until 1940.
Fliszt: His explanation-or excuse, depending on how you look at it-was that he thought the Nazi phenomenon far too crazy to last. Another example of a musician living in a rarified world.
Not to mention that all the good (mainly Jewish) pianists had left, so Arrau had the connoisseur German public all to himself – so he was the King of pianists in the Nazi territories.
“Arrau had the connoisseur German public all to himself”? Hardly. Gieseking, Kempff, and Backhaus were all in Germany during the Third Reich.
Those boys were much older than Arrau. Among pianists of his generation, Arrau had no competition after 1933 in Nazi territories.
He had a teaching position in Berlin until 1940 (but he always said he had left in 39). His resignation letter ended with« Heil Hitler »
I greatly admired Arrau and am disappointed to hear about the last phrase of his resignation letter.
Kempff, Backhaus are no good pianists ? Get a grip and stop panting.
Not to underestimate the absence of great Jewish pianists, but weren’t such top names as Gieseking, Backhaus and Kempff still very active in Germany during those dark years? These are just three names that instantly came to my mind. I believe there are many more.
Hardly noticed? Really?
==One of the greats, hardly noticed any more.
No,no, no. Regularly broadcast and re-issued.
The internet dealer jpc, Germany’s largest classical music site, generates 121 hits when you search for “Claudio Arrau”. That is hardly indicative of him being forgotten…
He was not one of my favorites, though extremely accomplished. But this is why people like Yuja Wang are so thoroughly offensive. Publicity should be tied to merit, at least in classical music publications. Take note.
For crissakes, close your eyes and LISTEN to Yuja. It’s her outfits that offend, not her playing – which is always musically intelligent & tasteful, and pianistically marvelous. And, so sorry that the masterful playing of Arrau eluded you.
Very good, and not available on CD as far as I can tell
We are swamped with new”tallent” taking up all the airwaves time hence Arrau, Gieseking, Gilels, Richter etc have ceased to exist.
Is the new tallent better or even as good?
Yes one of the greats. i hope he will will always be noticed. Terrific playing!