Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth with Artur Schnabel and Frederick Stock

Widely considered one of the 20th century’s greatest interpreters of Beethoven — and the first pianist to commercially record that composer’s complete cycle of sonatas — Artur Schnabel made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on March 9 and 10, 1923, in Brahms’ First Piano Concerto under Frederick Stock. The Austrian pianist first appeared with the Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in July 1942, performing four piano concertos — Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth, Brahms’s Second and Mozart’s 24th — over the course of eight days, all under the baton of George Szell.

For the first concert, on July 11, Schnabel’s appearance drew an audience of more than 6,000, Ravinia’s largest of the season. Cecil Smith in the Chicago Tribune wrote, “Any description of the tremendousness of Schnabel’s performance can at best only brush the surface. Here was music as it is rarely heard, music completely expressed and coordinated, without taint of sensationalism or superficiality and without a suggestion of inadequacy or smallness. . . . [Beethoven’s Fourth] was warm with sentiment and charged with drama, as the occasion demanded, and yet these emotional qualities were always controlled by a mind which constantly understood the great design of the work.”

The following week, on July 22 and 24, Schnabel and the Orchestra committed Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth piano concertos to disc with Stock on the podium in Orchestra Hall. To coincide with the release of the recordings, the pianist was to return to Chicago later that fall for performances of both concertos, also under Stock. Sadly, the Orchestra’s beloved second music director died unexpectedly on October 20, 1942, just after the start of the 52nd season. As scheduled, Schnabel performed Beethoven’s Fifth Concerto on November 24 and the Fourth on November 26 and 27, but under the baton of Hans Lange, the ensemble’s associate conductor.

“Mr. Schnabel’s performance had an Olympian security that verged on the casual — in itself amazing treatment of a concerto hardly half a dozen living pianists can play,” wrote Claudia Cassidy in the Chicago Tribune, following his performance of the Emperor. “He plays it with limpid ease, with a veracity that bears no argument, and with a beauty both distinguished and definitive.”

Victor Records released Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto (eight sides on four 78 rpm records) also in late November. “It would be easy for Chicagoans to turn sentimental about such an album and to gloss over flaws with affection. But it isn’t necessary — in fact, it would be unpardonable condescension. For the performance is magnificent, with the boldness of authoritative style and the clairvoyance of ideal cooperation. It is recorded with superb accuracy, and with intelligent care for spacing, so the ear isn’t left hanging on a phrase while you turn a record,” commented Cassidy in the Tribune. “I came to the conclusion that the piano never has been more successfully recorded. Schnabel’s tone is there in quality, dimensions, and that brilliance of attack that means absolute security. . . . Mr. Stock’s accompaniment is typical of what Chicago took for granted for many a rich season.”

This article also appears here.