Educational Media Reviews Online

This video is a memorial and tribute to the great 20th century pianist and piano teacher Karl Ulrich Schnabel (1909-2001), the son of famed pianist Artur Schnabel, and the last in a long line of pianists whose training is traced directly back to Ludwig von Beethoven. "Uli," as his friends called him, began playing piano at the age of five and made his concert debut in 1926. He had a brilliant solo career, and was a master of the piano duo tradition. Some of the greatest pianists of our time, including Claude Frank, Richard Goode, Peter Serkin, and Leon Fleisher, studied under Uli. This film provides biographical material about the Schnabel family, shows Uli conducting master classes and in interviews about his life and career, and has interviews with many of his former students. Uli's teaching style has been labeled by him as "Con Brio," a musical term meaning spiritual fire, whereby he empowers his students to go beyond technique and training to "feel" and "live" the music when practicing and performing.

This is a wonderful film and tribute to Uli, whom I personally met and watched perform as a teenager with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was a dynamic and powerful teacher, one who was able to draw the best out of his students. I highly recommend this video to music students of all ages, as well as teachers of any discipline.