# Artur Schnabel’s Compositions



## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

I’m watching a documentary about Artur Schnabel. Rather than focusing on his more familiar career as a pianist and legendary interpreter of the core German repertoire, the film emphasizes his role as a composer. Some of his music is quite striking. It’s all intensely expressionistic, reminding one of early Schoenberg piano works, only he wrote many more than Schoenberg ever did. 

Any fans? What recordings are even out there? Quite difficult stuff to find...


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

https://www.amazon.com/Schnabel-Complete-Piano-Jenny-Lin/dp/B07PYJ3Y2T/

I found this, released last month. This may be about it as for recordings currently on the market. I'm going to check it out.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Here's a Sonata for Violin and Piano by Schnabel.






I love Schnabel's performances of Beethoven and Schubert, as do many, but I'm afraid the atonality of his compositions don't do much for me. It's not Schnabel, it's the atonality. I'm afraid it's just not something I'll ever like. All that said, and given my own limitations, Schnabel's compositions sound every bit as good as a Schoenberg, Webern or any 20th century composer. 20th century compositions either succeed on the basis of their own self-defined and self-referential aesthetics or don't.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Well, it's for a reason that his career as a composer never took off the way that his career as an interpreter grew to legendary status. That's too bad for you, regarding atonal music, as you're missing out on a lot of great music, but it's true that that stuff is not for everyone. 

Schnabel's compositions I think are on the easier listening side of atonal music, and the impression I got was something like Alban Berg meets Brahms and Schumann. Thanks for the link, I'll listen. That documentary featured a String Quintet that was pretty good, though I questioned some of his decisions in terms of the string writing. There were many passages where all of the strings played a melody in unison while the piano soloed around them and I found it strange... 

The documentary is called No Place of Exile. Worth a watch, I think, it's short. 

I have heard very little of herr Schnabel's Schubert. I need to change that. I think I will get the Schubert box set he has on Warner one of these days.


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

flamencosketches said:


> Well, it's for a reason that his career as a composer never took off...


Yeah, but it may not have because of the music. Generally speaking (and not to start a fight or anything) one was historically better off being a mediocre composer. It's possible that Schoenberg is the mediocre composer and the world simply hasn't caught up with Schnabel yet.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

vtpoet said:


> Yeah, but it may not have because of the music. Generally speaking (and not to start a fight or anytning) one was historically better off being a mediocre composer. It's possible that Schoenberg is the mediocre composer and the world simply hasn't caught up with Schnabel yet.


Them's fightin' words. I love Schoenberg. But perhaps you're onto something. It would not be the first time a forgotten, Austrian Jewish composer, renowned in his lifetime as a performer, would come to be recognized for his own compositions decades after his death...


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