Karl Ulrich Schnabel started duo performances and recordings with his father, Artur Schnabel, in the 1930’s. Beginning in 1939, he played internationally in an increasing number of duo appearances with his wife, the American pianist Helen Schnabel, in concertos for two pianos and orchestra as well as in recitals for one piano, four hands. In 1956 the Duo participated at the Holland Festival in five performances with orchestra and in 1972 at the Edinburgh Festival. They appeared regularly in most European countries, throughout the United States, and in Canada. Many contemporary musicians composed four-hand pieces for Helen and Karl Ulrich Schnabel, dedicating them to the Duo. They were frequently performed in concert.
“If one had the good fortune of seeing and hearing the Schnabels in recital, the charm of these two, husband and wife, playing four hands on one piano, is unforgettable. They played with great musical authority. They played with elegance, with joy, and with humor. They played as one, and at times on one piano they achieved the dramatic effect of a full orchestra. They revived an art popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For this art they inherited a literature far more extensive than the literature for two pianos, and they brought to it individually skilled and mature musicianship, flavored with the warmth and excitement of their love for the music, for the piano and for each other.”
The Piano Duo Schnabel specialized in performing works of the rarely heard literature of original compositions for one piano four-hands. This original literature for one piano four-hands is extensive, rich and varied: four volumes of music by Schubert, five sonatas and a set of variations by Mozart, a large selection of pieces by Beethoven, Schumann, Weber, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bizet, Debussy, Ravel, Dvorak, works by Christian Bach, Clementi, Diabelli and many 20th century composers, such as Hindemith, Poulenc, Rachmaninoff, Crumb, Stravinsky, Krenek. Breathtaking virtuoso brilliance, grandiose symphonic form and content, and also delightful miniatures with haunting simple folk-tunes are to be found. The international acclaim of the Piano Duo Schnabel was partly due to their pioneer work in this field, bringing many hidden treasures to the concert stage and the larger public. Fortunately the Duo issued many recordings over the years, all available today.
Six years after his wife’s death in 1974, Karl Ulrich Schnabel formed a new duo with the Canadian pianist Joan Rowland and gave concerts with her extensively in the United States, Canada and Europe for twenty years. The Duo’s yearly schedule of performances has included programs in North America and Europe at such prestigious locales as the Ravinia Festival, the Roque D’Antheron, the Lockenhaus and Maryland Festivals; the Frick Museum in New York, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Philharmonie in Berlin. They broadcasted repeatedly over the German radio network. Many young composers wrote music for them.
