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.

He allowed Schnabel to leave Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies and concentrate instead on Schubert's sonatas, which had been widely neglected up to that point.

[3] Following a failed initial approach to Anton Bruckner, Schnabel studied music theory and composition under Eusebius Mandyczewski.

He gained initial fame thanks to orchestral concerts he gave under the conductor Arthur Nikisch as well as playing in chamber music and accompanying his future wife, the contralto Therese Behr, in Lieder.

In chamber music, he founded the Schnabel Trio with the violinist Alfred Wittenberg and the cellist Anton Hekking; they played together between 1902 and 1904.

Schnabel also played with a number of other famous musicians including the violinist Joseph Szigeti and the cellists Pablo Casals and Pierre Fournier.

He was friends of, and played with, the most distinguished conductors of the day, including Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, George Szell, Willem Mengelberg, and Adrian Boult.

His mother Ernestine Taube remained in Vienna after the Anschluss, and at the age of 83, in August 1942, was deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she died two months later.

[3] However, it has been suggested by some that "Schnabel, uprooted from his native heritage, may have been clinging to the great German composers in an attempt to keep his cultural origins alive".

While on a tour of Spain, Schnabel wrote to his wife saying that during a performance of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations he had begun to feel sorry for the audience.

[2] This set of recordings has never been out of print and is considered by many to be the touchstone of Beethoven sonata interpretations, though shortcomings in finger technique mar many performances of fast movements (Sergei Rachmaninoff is supposed to have referred to him as "the great adagio pianist").

(It is interesting, in this regard, to note that Schnabel was a close friend of Arnold Schoenberg, his Austrian-American compatriot, who was famous as a pioneering composer of atonal and twelve-tone music.)

Composers Ernst Krenek and Roger Sessions have commented that they show signs of undoubted genius (see biography of Schnabel by Cesar Saerchinger).

Pianist Jenny Lin released a recording of Schnabel's complete keyboard music for the Steinway and Sons label in 2019.

From: Chronological List of Compositions by Artur Schnabel Archived 16 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine On September 11, 2016, a major international revival of Schnabel's compositions began with a concert at the Großer Sendesaal des rbb im Haus des Rundfunks, presented as part of the Musikfest Berlin.

[21] The program featured pianist Markus Pawlik (who also curated), the Szymanowski String Quartet, baritone Dietrich Henschel, and film projections by Matthew Mishory.

German actor Udo Samel read a selection of Artur Schnabel's letters to Mary Virginia Foreman.

The program was repeated Wednesday, 14 September 2016, at the RadioKulturhaus in Vienna and again on Thursday, 30 August 2018, at the Salle des congrès in Megève, France, with further performances planned.

[22] The 2016 Berlin concert was broadcast in its entirety on Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg radio and filmed for the Arte documentary Artur Schnabel: No Place of Exile, directed by Matthew Mishory.

[23] The film was shot in Switzerland, Italy, Vienna, and Berlin, utilizing unexpected textures (super8, drone footage, back-projection) and the actor Udo Samel to chart Schnabel's course through the emotional and physical landscapes of the European 20th century.