Musik und der Weg des größten Widerstands

English edition

Schnabel's thinking seems so topical to us today that it is necessary to make all his writings accessible. We begin with the book with the programmatic title Musik und der Weg des größten Widerstands (Music and the Path of Greatest Resistance), which is now being presented in German translation for the first time. The title stands for Schnabel's conviction that for the realization of truly great works, not only are difficulties to be overcome, but they must be sought out. He takes it almost as a definition of the highest category of music that it can never really be adequately performed, but that every interpretation is always only an approximation to an unattainable ideal, which is nothing less than the reason why generations of musicians have interpreted the same pieces over and over again: One never reaches an end with the real masterpieces of music. No one before him has formulated this as aptly as he, who in his lectures sometimes managed to condense an entire philosophy of art into a single aphorism.

The republication of Schnabel's writings will now give a younger generation the opportunity to engage comprehensively with an artist who reflected on the significance of music in modern society like almost no other practicing musician and who clearly foresaw developments decades ago that have only now fully unfolded.

Translated from the English by Hermann J. Metzler.

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