Claudio Arrau (February 6, 1903–June 9, 1991) was a Chilean-American pianist, of world fame for his interpretations of a huge repertory spanning from the baroque to 20th-century composers. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.
Arrau was born in Chillán, the son of eye doctor Carlos Arrau and Lucrecia León. He belonged to one of the oldest and most important families of Southern Chile, his ancestor Lorenzo de Arrau was sent to Chile by King Carlos III of Spain.
He was a child prodigy, giving his first concert at age 5. At age 7 he was sent on a Chilean government grant to study in Germany, where he was a pupil of Martin Krause, who had studied under Franz Liszt. At the age of 12 he could play Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, considered to be one of the most difficult sets of works ever written for the piano.
Arrau was the teacher of Karlrobert Kreiten, among others.
He recorded the complete piano music of Robert Schumann, and edited his works for publication. He is also famous for his recordings of Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Liszt, and Debussy, among others. He played with style and passion, although often with a seemingly "untidy" technique; he was more musician than technician. He is said to have had a warm persona, and his playing is consistent with this description. In particular his rich, weighty tone, which has been likened to vintage Burgundy wine, lends his interpretations a distinctive voice. Although he often played with slower and more deliberate tempi from his middle age, Arrau had a reputation for being a virtuoso early in his career.
In February 1979, Arrau became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
At the time of his death in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, he was working on a CD recording of the complete works of Bach for keyboard.
In 1937 he married German Jewish mezzosoprano Ruth Schneider, and they had three children: Carmen (1938), Mario (1940-1988) and Christopher (1959). He had a happy family life with his wife and children. The Arraus were a very close family and used to pass summers at Douglaston, where the pianist had a summer residence.
It is interesting to note that through his great-grandmother, María del Carmen Daroch Del Solar, he was a descendant of the Campbells of Glenorchy, a very prominent Scottish noble family. He was a distant relative of Francesca von Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon, daughter-in-law of Otto von Habsburg. They both descended from Sir John Campbell of Glenorchy, father of the first Earl of Breadalbane.
Quotes
- An interpreter must give his blood to the work interpreted. — Claudio Arrau
- Since in music we deal with notes, not words, with chords, with transitions, with color and expression, the musical meaning always based on those notes as written and nothing else - has to be divined. Therefore any musician, no matter how great an instrumentalist, who is not also an interpreter of a divinatory order, the way Furtwängler was, or Fischer-Dieskau is, is somehow onesided, somehow without spiritual grandeur. — Claudio Arrau