Arthur Rubinstein: Play

Arthur Rubinstein was Polish-American classical pianist. Explore interesting quotes on play.
Arthur Rubinstein: 30 quotes6 likes

“Rubinstein was wonderful. For three days he spent hours playing the piano in my room, and then asking me what I thought of this and that. After a while he told my mother that I had talent and he thought I should be a musician.”

Arthur Rubinstein

Antonio de Almeida — reported in Paul Hume (July 28, 1981) "Odyssey Of a Conductor", The Washington Post, p. C4.
About

“I liked him [Rubinstein] as a pianist. He was a good musician and had a fantastic repertoire. He never had a great technique, but certain things he played well. I heard him play some of the Chopin etudes, the easier ones with great panache and I told him I had never heard them played better. He said, "Do you mean it?"”

Arthur Rubinstein

and I said, "Yes, I do mean it."
Vladimir Horowitz, quoted in Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: his life and music (1992)
About

“Arthur Rubinstein once said to me that he couldn't think when he played, that something else took over. I also don't think when I play - something happens through me, but I am motivated by what I have thought before.”

Arthur Rubinstein

Leonard Shure — reported in Richard Dyer (April 21, 1980) "Shure: Looking Back on the first 70 Years", Boston Globe.
About

“My father, good or bad, mistakes or no, had a direct line from his heart to the music to the people, to the audience. He played with logic and his own inner truth.”

Arthur Rubinstein

John Rubinstein — reported in Kevin Kelly (February 22, 1981) "Rubinstein a Chip Off Rubinstein: John Says His Father's Music Shaped His Approach to Acting", Boston Globe.
About

“Others may be regularly more flashy, though few can dazzle so dependably; and none can match him for power and refinement. He plays very loudly and very beautifully, very softly and thoroughly clean, straightforwardly, elegantly, and with a care for both the amenities of musical discourse and the clear transmission of musical thought. He is a master pianist and a master musician. There has not been his like since Busoni.”

Arthur Rubinstein

Virgil Thomson, "King of Pianists" (1949)
About