Arthur Rubinstein at Wigmore Hall

On 1 May 1912 Arthur Rubinstein made his London recital debut at Wigmore Hall (then called Bechstein Hall), with a second concert a few days later on 6 May. In the first programme according to The Times, he gave ‘a vivid and poetical performance’, of Schumann’s Carnaval, and showed the depth of his technique in Studies by Liszt and Szymanowski’s Sonata in A major (The Times 2 May 1912). Such was the success of these first recitals, two further programmes were arranged for 24 May and 1 June.

Among the members of the audience who came backstage to offer their congratulations at the first concert were the singer Emmy Destinn and the violinist Jacques Thibaud. Thibaud immediately invited Rubinstein to play sonatas with him at the Hall in two concerts: on 23 May and on 5 June. Rubinstein describes these concerts with Thibaud as ‘sheer joy. We were musically in complete harmony and enjoyed our rehearsals almost more than the concerts.’

In the first concert they played a Handel Sonata in D major for violin and piano and the Lekeu Sonata for violin and piano in which ‘both players exactly caught the intimate and yet rhapsodical character of the music’, according to The Times. (24 May) In the second concert, the programme included Beethoven’s Sonata in F major Op. 24 for violin and piano, and the César Franck Sonata. The Times (6 June) described the performers as ‘splendidly matched; they understood the music and each other so well that there was little temptation to draw distinctions between them further than to suggest that the keenly intellectual phrasing of the pianist gave special distinction to the Beethoven Sonata, and that the emotional warmth and fervour of M. Thibaud’s style dominated the interpretation of Franck’s work.’

In the following year, Rubinstein returned to the Hall for two further recitals in May and June, and in 1914, as well as giving solo recitals, he gave two concerts with the Polish violinist Paul Kochanski. ‘Such a concert as that given by Mr. Arthur Rubinstein and Mr. Paul Kochanski yesterday at the Bechstein Hall bears welcome witness to a steady advance in the standard of performance of late years.’ (The Times, 26 May 1914). They performed three sonatas: Brahms’s A major Sonata, Szymanowski’s Sonata in D minor and Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. The second concert took place on 13 June. The programme consisted entirely of modern works: Kochanski and Rubinstein performed Korngold’s Sonata Op. 6, followed by a new song-cycle ‘Des Hafis Liebeslieder’ by Szymanowski, performed by Paul Draper. The concert closed with Reger’s Sonata in F sharp minor.

It was not until after the war that Rubinstein appeared again at Wigmore Hall, on 30 December 1919. Rubinstein was by now a successful international pianist, and this concert was well-publicised: ‘Mr E A Mitchell has the honour of presenting Mr. Arthur Rubinstein whom he has been fortunate enough to secure on his way from Spain to the US. As Mr. Rubinstein is due to open extended tours of North and South America early in January, the present occasion will positively be his only recital in London for a considerable time.’ Rubinstein continued to appear at the Hall in the 1920s: he gave three recitals in November and December 1920 and a recital with Paul Kochanski of sonatas by Bach, the Sonata in E major, Beethoven’s Sonata in C minor Op. 30 No. 2 and Brahms’s Sonata in D minor Op. 108. The recital on 11 November included music for two pianos with the composer and pianist Germaine Taillefer, and as well as some of her compositions.

Further recitals took place in 1924 and1925 and again in 1930. In November 1935, Rubinstein played Liszt’s transcription of Bach’s organ Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, César Frank’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue which The Times critic remarked ‘made an impressive first part to Mr. Arthur Rubinstein’s recital at Wigmore Hall on Saturday.’ The second half of the concert contained, for the first time in London, thirteen of Shostakovich’s set of 24 Preludes and a Polka arranged from the ballet The Golden Age. ‘The preludes are more interesting [than the Polka]; they are not, like Chopin’s famous 24, each the working out of a pithy idea in a miniature form, though one or two of the more rapid numbers are of this type, but rather short improvizations.’ (The Times 11 November 1935)

It was many years before Rubinstein appeared again at Wigmore Hall. On 31 May 1976, some 64 years after his debut, Rubinstein gave what was to be the final recital in his career. Invited by the director William Lyne as part of the Hall’s 75th anniversary celebrations, Rubinstein performed Schumann’s Carnaval – as he had done on his debut – along with Beethoven’s Sonata in E flat Op. 31 No. 3, Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, and two works by Chopin: his Nocturne in D flat Op. 27 No. 2 and the Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31. Max Harrison in The Times described his performance as ‘the epitome of civilized refinement’, and ‘aristocratic in the real, almost forgotten sense of the word. At the end of the recital, Rubinstein announced his retirement from the stage and invited people to keep coming back to this wonderful hall.

Writing in his memoirs, Rubinstein mentions this final concert: 'The last concert of my career was the one I gave at Wigmore Hall in London for the benefit of the hall, which was in danger of being demolished. My concert was to give an example to other artists in order to save this old endearing place. As for myself, it was a symbolic gesture; it was in this hall that I had given my first recital in London and playing there for the last time in my life made me think of my whole career in the form of a sonata. The first movement represented the struggles of my youth, the following andante for the beginning of a more serious aspect of my talent, a scherzo represented well the unexpected great success, and the finale turned out to be a wonderful moving end.'

Paula Best

References:

The Wigmore Hall Archive Arthur Rubinstein, Erinnerungen. Die frühen Jahre (Deutscher Bücherbund, Stuttgart: 1973) Arthur Rubinstein, My many years (London: Cape, 1980) Harvey Sachs, Arthur Rubinstein: a life (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996)

All images are from the Wigmore Hall Archive. Photos from the final concert kindly donated by David Saldanha.