Artur Rubinstein was a Polish pianist best remembered for his style and vivacity. He was born in Lodz, Poland, on January 28, 1887, the youngest child of Ignacy Rubinstein, a textile producer, and Felicia Heyman Rubinstein. He began piano lessons at the age of three, and exhausted the resources of the Warsaw Conservatory of Music by age eight, when he was sent to Berlin to perform for the eminent violinist, Joseph Joachim. Joachim not only undertook supervision of the prodigy’s musical education, but also conducted at Rubinstein’s Berlin debut in December 1900. Public success in Berlin led to recitals in Dresden, Hamburg, and Warsaw, as well as a visit to Ignacy Paderewski in Switzerland. He was later taught privately by Paderewski. Launched on the conceit stage in 1910, Rubinstein’s natural facility and exuberant temperament propelled him into the first rank of European concert pianists. His gift for sight-reading and sensitive musicianship made him a favourite of singers and chamber musicians. The great violinist Eugène Ysaye chose him to be his main accompanist.
During the early part of World War I, Rubinstein gave recitals for the Allied cause and became so enraged by German treatment of Poles and Belgians that he vowed never to appear in Germany again. From 1916, tours of Spain and South America earned critical acclaim. Rubinstein reappeared at Carnegie Hall in 1919, but was rebuffed by American critics who found his playing marked by high spirits and little preparation, as they had with his first appearance as a boy in 1906.
This casual approach changed after his marriage to Aniela Mlynarski in 1932. Rubinstein began to dedicate himself more fully to becoming a serious pianist— he practiced six to nine hours a day, restudied his repertoire, and began to record. This process brought discipline to his robust temperament and intelligence to his charismatic manner. Rubinstein’s third tour of America in 1937 wrung the highest critical acclaim from previously sceptical critics. A love affair between the charismatic Pole and the American musical public began and never flagged. World War II forced Rubinstein to relocate his family from Paris to Beverly Hills, where he played the piano in films about Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, and others, including Of Men and Music (1950), in which he played himself. In 1946, Rubinstein took American citizenship, and he moved to New York in the 1950s. His prodigious concert career continued unabated, and he also collaborated with the likes of Piatigorsky, Szeryng, and the Guarneri Quartet.
Through his 70s and 80s, Rubinstein held pride of place as the complete pianist—his playing was always forthright and natural. He gave his last recital in London in 1976, when failing eyesight put an end to his public appearances. His recorded legacy includes the complete piano works of Chopin, three versions of the complete Beethoven piano concertos, and an enormous repertoire of works by Mozart, de FALLA, DEBUSSY, RAVEL, POULENC, Brahms, and others. However, he was known in his maturity above all as a Chopin interpreter. In his early years, Rubinstein’s interpretations of Chopin were criticised as cold and colourless; but his rich, glowing sonority and lyric legato phrasing eventually converted critics to his approach. Rubinstein died in Geneva on December 20, 1982.
HaoHuang
SEE ALSO:
CHAMBER MUSIC; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC.
Rubinstein, A. My Many Years (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980);
Sachs, H. Rubinstein: A Life (New York: Grove Press, 1995).
Beethoven: Concerto No. 5 in E flat (Emperor);
Brahms: Four Ballades; Concerto No. 1 in D;
Concerto No. 2 in B flat;
Chopin: Ballades; Mazurkas; Scherzi; Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2 in C; Rhapsody; Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales;
Saint-Saëns: Concerto No. 2 in G minor; Schubert: Fantasy in C; Schumann: Quintet in E flat Major; Three Fantasies.