CLAUDIO ARRAU
Currently making his 16th consecutive U.S. convert tour, Claudio Arrau is celebrated today on every continent of the globe. He has been a New York resident since his first sensational Carnegie Hall recital in 1941, although he remains a citizen of his native Chile, where he is an adored national hero, and where he has a street named in his honor in Santiago. Almost every season sees Arrau, famed as much for his amazing vitality as for his fabulous repertoire and musicianship, perform on as many as three different continents, and sometimes on four. In 1956 he toured Europe and the U.S., South Africa and India, and performed in Singapore. In London he is today's great box-office draw, and often plays five concerts within a month. In Germany, where he spent his child prodigy days and where he had his earliest successes, he was given the reception of his career when he returned there again (the last great pianist to go back after the War) in March, 1954. At the end of this March he will return for his sixth sold-out German tour in exactly three years, an unprecedented box-office record.
Born in a small Chilean village 54 years ago, Arrau was able to sit down and play a movement from a Beethoven sonata at sight at the age of four. It was most extraordinary for there had never been a professional musician in the family. His mother played the piano, and the child might have learned to play by ear. But he did more; he taught himself to read notes; or rather, reading notes came to him as easily as gazing at a picture book. At five he gave his first recital, and at seven he made his official debut in Santiago. The Chilean Government, overcome by the young genius on its hands, shipped him and his whole family off to Germany in order that he might study with one of the great teachers of the time, Martin Krause, to show how he can trace his musical heritage all the way back to Beethoven, who had tought Czerny, who had taught Liszt, who had taught Krause.
As Chile's most celebrated international citizen abroad, Arrau is given the privilege of travelling on a diplomatic passport, which considerably facilitates his many comings and goings all over the world. And, as the greatest pianist to come out of South America since Teresa Carreno more than 50 years ago, practically every Latin-American government has decorated him at one time or another. The latest was Mexico, which named him "Hijo Predilecto" (Favorite Son), the country's highest decoration in the arts.