Artur Schnabel

Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century's most respected and important pianists, his playing displayed marked vitality, profundity and spirituality in the Austro-German classics, particularly the works of Beethoven and Schubert. His performances of these compositions have often been hailed as models of interpretative penetration. His best-known recording is of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas; recorded between 1932 and 1935, it is the first recording ever made of the complete cycle of 32 sonatas. Music critic Harold C. Schonberg described Schnabel as "the man who invented Beethoven". In 2018 the Library of Congress selected this recording to be placed in the National Recording Registry for its historical significance.