The house where Schnabel was born
NewsThe conductor Pawel Kotla, who is advising the Beskid Classics festival in Bielsko-Biala, was surprised to find that there is no memorial to the Polish city’s most famous son, the immortal pianist Arthur Schnabel.
Kotla has traced the address where Schnabel was born, but the house has long since been demolished.
Bielsko-Biala is bidding to become European City of Culture in 2029.
It should rename its airport after the much-travelled Schnabel.
There has never been an authoritative, scholarly biography written about Artur Schnabel, and one is needed! Caesar Saerchinger’s 1957 effort was heavily manipulated by Schnabel’s widow, and can’t be taken seriously.
I read the Saerchinger Schnabel bio, and it was a long slog, written in the manner of The Lives of the Saints. Schnabel comes across as a humorless prig, in contrast to the humorous thumbnail sketch from Harold Schonberg‘s Lives of the Great Pianists.
Saerchinger’s book is a shameless presentation of how a widow wants the public to view her husband, and what a coincidence that the book is dedicated to her!
Apart from the mentioned book, please consider the following:
The teaching of Artur Schnabel, by Konrad Wolff; My life in music, by Artur Schnabel; Music and the line of most resistance, by Artur Schnabel.
F.Y.I.
All very fine books. But a thoroughly researched book on Schnabel’s life and career, the effects of his teaching on his students and its overall influence on music-making, and on his compositions – this has yet to be done.
There is a memorial plaque on the house where he lived in Berlin.
https://www.berlin.de/ba-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf/ueber-den-bezirk/geschichte/persoenlichkeiten-und-gedenktafeln/artikel.125651.php
One lives and learns ! I never knew that Schnabel was Polish by birth
He wasn’t – and it wasn’t a Polish town in 1882:-)
He was not. He was born in Kunzendorf in Galicia, then Austria-Hungary. Today it is Polish, but not in 1882, when you had plenty of ethnic diversity across all of Austria-Hungary, but esp. in its Eastern provinces. Schnabel’s religious affiliation was Jewish, his cultural background (as the names of his relatiives indicate) German (or Austrian, but not Polish).
And yet, interestingly and unlike another great pianist Arthur Ruinstein who was definitely Polish, throughout his life he spelled his first name as “Artur” rather than “Arthur” which was more Polish than German way. You need to remember that Poland did not exist at that time and was divided between Austria, Russia and Prussia. Bielsko-Biala is a twin city, which for centuries was divided, with Bielsko being on Austrian or Czech side of the river dividing the city, and Biala (and its present suburb which used to be Kunzendorf) on the side which used to be part of Little Poland – the region of Poland whose capital was Cracow. To complicate the issue Bielsko was a German “linguistic island” in Poland till 1945. So it might be that claiming that Schnabel was Austrian could be like saying that Dvorak or Smetana were not Czech but Austrian, or that Chopin was Russian. He himself described his pedigree as “I was born in a small Austrian village, which belonged to the Austrian part of Poland. My parents were Austrian subjects whose religion was Jewish”. So neither did he really say that his parents were Austrian nor that he was Austrian himself.
Yes, definitely rename the airport…and put a commemorative plaque on whatever is there now where his house once stood ( even if it’s a McDonald’s)!
“It should rename its airport after the much-travelled Schnabel.”
It’s a good idea, if they’ve had an airport
They do
But not in operation
Thanks for publishing this info. A few things to clarify. Bielsko-Biała has no commercial airport. It is rather an airstrip, even though it used to be one of the leading European centres for glider training and production. It is however extremely well connected with 3 international airports available within one-hour, dual carriageway drive (Katowice, Cracow and Janacek (!) Airport in Ostrava). The really importan thing is that it has now two excellent modern concert halls (1000 and 320 seats) built very recently. During last year a number of fine orchestras visited the city: Slovak Sinfonietta, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from London and philharmonic orchestras from Cracow, Brno and Wroclaw. You can follow the webpage (klasyka.eu) or FB page of the festival (https://www.facebook.com/FestiwalKlasyki/) where next month we will be publishing more details on the topic.
He was a good composer too. His works should be promoted by someone.
Well, the jury is still out as to the quality and value of his compositions, which are very atonal and complex.
I would recommend Schnabels transcribed lectures from the 1940s about his life and about music, found in the book Music, Wit and Wisdom. I found this to bo a very interesting read, where Schnabel comes across as a fascinating character. I guess most of you already know this, but I would like to mention it anyway.