Therese Behr News Today

The great Austrian pianist who revolutionised the recording industry by setting down the first-ever set of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas

“Mozart is a garden, Schubert is a forest in light and shade, but Beethoven is a mountain range.” Artur Schnabel was one the most influential pianists of the early 20th century. He’s best remembered as “the man who invented Beethoven.” When he played the complete Beethoven sonatas in a series of pioneering programs in Berlin in 1927, (the composer’s centenary year) it was an historic event that changed the perception of Beethoven’s works. Harold C. Schonberg, the long-time New Yor...