Arthur Rubinstein: My Young Years

by Arthur Rubinstein

With his uncanny memory, with his unsurpassed gift as raconteur, the adored maestro of the piano at last tells the story of his life - the adventures, the struggles, the amours, the mishaps, and the triumphs... Rubenstein's life and music have been illuminated with a radiant energy, a magic that could only have sprung from a gargantuan love of life. His book - bursting with anecdote, information, opinion, with life - is a testament to that great gift. Illustrated with 24 pages of photographs and mementos.

Genres: Music, Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction, Autobiography

478 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Artur Rubinstein was a Polish pianist who is widely considered as one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 20th Century. He received international acclaim for his performances of Frédéric Chopin and Johannes Brahms and his championing of Spanish music.

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arthur Rubinstein was the Wilt Chamberlain of classical pianists. Apparently he would have sex with any moderately attractive female. And the reader is never left to wonder whether any female he meets is attractive or ugly; everyone in his range is subjected to the "hot or not" treatment.

Rubinstein begins his active love life having an affair with the wife of the couple he boards with. (He has essentially made himself independent of his family who are back in Lodz, Poland while he studies in other nations.) I wasn't clear on how old he was when this affair started - 14? 15? 16? In another anecdote, Rubinstein goes to the Folies Bergère and ends up in a room having sex acts performed upon him by not one but two of the lovely staffers. At the end of the event - surprise, surprise - he is presented with a bill that is much higher than he expected and has to leave some beautiful gem-encrusted cufflinks that he was given in England by a wealthy sponsor as collateral. Another time, while concertizing in Spain, he meets a sad Spanish woman, recently widowed, on a park bench at night. She emits her tragic tale of the death of her husband, he briefly commiserates, and suddenly they are having sex on the bench. The longest relationship of this memoir is with the pseudonymously named Pola Harman, a young married mother of two and the sister of one of his best friends, the pseudonymously named composer and conductor Frederick Harman. (Their real life names, I have since learned, were Julius Wertheim and Lily Wertheim.) At first he and Pola just sneak around. Then her entire family finds out about the affair and becomes alienated from her, keeping the children. For several years Pola lives with Rubinstein, her children very far away. Sometimes she gallivants with him on his concert tours, sometimes she stays at home alone. Now, obviously Pola was an adult, responsible for making her own decisions, but what kind of person implicitly asks or expects a mother to abandon her children for the sake of a multi-year love affair?

One of the oddest bits of Rubinstein's early years doesn't even merit a mention in the memoir. He befriended an American couple in London, Paul and Muriel Draper (Muriel was the sister-in-law of famed interior decorator Dorothy Draper). Paul was a singer of lieder and Muriel created a salon in her London home frequented by musicians, artists, and writers - John Singer Sargent and Henry James were among its attendees. Muriel "had a fine, graceful figure, a pale, silky complexion, and remarkably beautiful hands. But her face was disquieting: her narrow, long head, topped by hair that she kept closely under a net, her high cheekbones, her short, slightly flat nose, and exuberantly large mouth with thick red lips made her look like a white Negress." Soon Muriel and Arthur are having an affair (unbeknownst to Pola, who waits alone for Arthur). And one day Muriel announces she is pregnant. Eventually Arthur meets the baby, "which looked like any other baby". "His name is Smudge," she announced. (I have never known his real name.)" According to sources which are not this book, "Smudge" was Rubinstein's son; his name was Raimund Sanders Draper. He was killed during World War II, deliberately crashing his plane in order to avoid hitting a school. Did Rubinstein really not know "Smudge" was his son? Did it occur to him at least that he might be, given that he was sleeping with Muriel at the time she became pregnant? I guess I'll have to read the sequel to find out.

(This memoir only covers his childhood in Lodz up to about the middle of the First World War. He's still a bachelor when we say au revoir.)

The other thing that makes young Rubinstein unlikable is that in addition to being a horndog he was an incurable bon vivant who found it nearly impossible to economize. This was fine as long as his aristocratic friends and sponsors, of which there were many, were footing his bills or advancing him money. These were times filled with lobster, caviar, and champagne dinners, nighttime entertainments, and gambling. But when these friends weren't around, Rubinstein would descend into abject poverty. (His Polish family was solidly bourgeois until his father was ruined by a serious business downturn, so they were rarely able to help him with money.)

One thing I will sympathize with him on is the need for artists not to give away their talent as if it is charity. The wealthy and/or aristocrats would often attempt to have Rubinstein play at their gatherings or soirees without paying him, and he resented it unless it was a group of his close friends. In America, both Mrs. W.K. (Birdie) Vanderbilt and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, of all people, stiffed Rubinstein after he had played ("professionally") at their parties. And Pablo Casals, with whom Rubinstein played a concert in London, never gave him his cut of the proceeds.

As you would expect with a memoir of a rising artist of enormous talent from the early 20th century, the cast of characters is incredible. The composer Karol Szymanowski was one of Rubinstein's closest friends. (Oddly, though Szymanowski was gay in real life, in the memoir he seems to be heterosexual.) Rubinstein was friends with Pablo Casals and the great violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. Paderewski hosted the very young Rubinstein at his estate. Maurice Ravel and Camille Saint-Saëns came to hear him play. At Muriel Draper's salon he met John Singer Sargent, Henry James, and the writer Norman Douglas. Proust attended one of his concerts. Busoni attended another. While vacationing in Italy at the home of Mabel Dodge he met John Reed and Gertrude Stein. Modest Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich's brother, was a friend who helped him procure concert engagements. Rubinstein had a long conversation about The Rite of Spring with Stravinsky after hearing it performed for the first time. (Stravinsky didn't know Rubinstein was a pianist, he just thought he was a random man very interested in music.) He came to know Sergei Diaghilev, and one day ran into Picasso. Baron George Curzon hosted him at his estate. He saw Maxim Gorky at a cafe one day. And oddest of all, one day in St. Petersburg he saw a dirty, bedraggled man sitting in a room surrounded by acolytes, whom he later realized was Rasputin.

In spite of the occasional moments of seriousness, such as a failed suicide attempt (because he had no money to pay his bills) and his hunger in Paris during the First World War (which didn't last long as he quickly acquired new aristocratic sponsors), the overall tone of the narrative is very light-hearted, superficial, and self-serving. I found it rather off-putting. It's hard to tell how much is truth and how much tonal embellishment. Of most interest to me were the passages where he talks about specific pieces of music, or approaches to playing. The world was very lucky to have Arthur Rubinstein, the pianist and musician.

[Richard Jespers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Renowned pianist Rubinstein publishes this autobiography in his mid-eighties, yet it is seemingly written by someone who has a great memory of his life. By way of his own recognizance, his memory is superior early on. He can memorize anything, particularly music, very quickly. And also by his admission, he is a bit lazy—a quirk he must overcome later in life (I shall have to read his accompanying biography, My Many Years to see if it is true). Instead of attacking a piece with necessary technique, he often performs by emphasizing emotional interpretation as he glosses over difficult passages he has not mastered. While it is a “successful” practice, he realizes it is also dishonest.

The book is filled with history (he is born into a divided Poland: Russia, Germany, and Austria “owning” certain chunks), delightful and painful anecdotes of growing up in which he early disinherits his parents and an overly paternalistic piano teacher to find his own way through the world. He celebrates an uncanny manner of always being saved at the last second from destitution (he calls these times deus ex machina moments) in which he is to but ask or hint to the right person and he receives a loan or an outright gift (of cash or sometimes paying concerts) that put his budget back in the black again. Sometimes, good things happen out of the blue. Yet, instead of being prudent following such windfalls, young Rubinstein spends money like he’s rich, staying in the best hotels and dining in the finest restaurants. He makes many friends, including persons of royalty, distinguished musicians and composers (for example when he spots Igor Stravinsky at an event, he makes a point of speaking with the man, begging for an audience, and they wind up being fast friends).

While not a literary book, this entertaining tome is well-written by a multilingual man who possesses a great command over the English language. It is delightful reading that kept me turning page after page.

[Dan Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable memoir of a man who, in the words of Lord Buckley, stomped the terra. Recommended even if you don’t like classical music or Rubinstein’s piano playing, and, by the way, he is endearingly open about what he considers his limitations as a musician, and his dislike for practicing. The man’s enormous vitality and love of life emanates from every sentence, and along with the story of his first few decades of life we get a vivid panorama of life in Europe and the United States from the turn of the 20th century into the first world war. This was a man who knew how to live, who had an enormous love for people, for literature, for theatre, for visual arts, and, of course, for music – and not only for classical music, as he was completely capable of loving popular music-hall performances and Spanish gypsy music and dancing performed in a cave outside Sevilla. Luckily for us, he also knew how to write very well, and had a truly amazing memory, bringing to live events and mental activities seventy or more years in his past. Imagine my happiness on just discovering that he also wrote another memoir covering the rest of his life...

[Dragana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The great pianist's story, life that was never to easy but somehow always turned lucky in the long way. An unique insight into ones life, love and pain. This is not a book you would perhaps immediately pick up from a shelf without knowing about its background and the man behind the hands. But once you take it you will travel far away, to different countries, time, through many beautiful piano masterpieces.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

[redacted and moved to blog]

[Betty Confetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rubinstein wrote 2 biographies, this one and "My Many Years." This one covers his youth up to about 30. Young Years is fabulous in that Rubinstein tells so much that is uncomplimentary of himself that it's believable, fascinating, and at the same time incredible. One comes to understand the mixing bowl of artistry that great musicians are subjected to in order to become who they grow up to be. In many ways, his early life reminds me of the mixing bowl of Louis Armstrong's early life--both in many ways aimless due to youths with hardly any connection to parenting authority. Also, the constant inter-connections of the theatre, movies, and music along with political developments as a backdrop is a constant theme in both books. Rubinstein, like Albert Einstein, also came to an appreciation and love for the state of Israel that is incredibly similar, and one can trace this to the antisemitism that both experienced leading into World War II. Rubinstein reveals himself to be both removed from major events of the day, as during World War I, he fled to South America and pursued with zest his performance career, as well as connected through movers and shakers. But always food is a big deal to him--clearly someone who probably never ate a Big Mac. Overall, I found My Many Years to be less authentic, as it is hard to believe he honestly had left behind the womanizing that characterized his youth. Was he always faithful to Nela, his wife? And really, who was Annabelle? These omissions reveal a certain degree of cover he gives himself in the second volume. I'm suspicious. My interest is whetted, and I will learn more about the true Rubinstein.

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rubinstein had a very interesting life, but unless you can stand his alternating bragging and self-pity, I suggest you find a different account of his life. In his very own words (while describing someone else), it was "a story larded with self-praise." I have no desire to read the other 2 books.

[Sigita San · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully detailed, witty account, which not only provides a glimpse into an incredibly eventful youth of Arthur Rubinstein, but also serves as a historic document of the late 19th-early 20th century Europe.
The autobiography is written with ease, wit and does relay a charming personality that Mr. Rubinstein is.
I have read some criticism here around some of the choices the young man had made. Yes, however, that's why, in my opinion, it is a testimony of life and times at that age. I appreciate the honesty of the great pianist and suspend my 21st century contentious and condemnatory attitudes. We are one century apart!
There was another comment around here, saying, that the book is self-indulgent and all about himself. Well... this is an autobiography! The genre requires that. The comment is also ungrateful for the fact that other names are aplenty - royalty, politicians, fellow musicians, friends... The reader is invited to learn not only about the Maestro, but also about hundreds of other colorful personalities, that have crossed roads with the famous musician.
A highly recommended read. Cannot wait to dive into My Many Years.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extremely satisfying book this- I have no particular interest in him, his playing or his life, nor in his musical choices. As usual in works like these, it's about what they say/show of a world (see here Prokofiev's Diaries).
His (early) life took place in interesting times and places, and with interesting people as well. His account of leaving Russia, his time in Poland, then Paris and all the rest, is very lively, slightly ironic and self-deprecating (although not when it comes to his playing).
What's missing is, at times, a more detailed exposition of his development as a pianist perhaps, at least technically. But as the portrait of a time, and of a profession, and of a passion, it's very nice indeed.

[Deniz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read

Reading this book was a bit of a surreal experience. For me, it was a true gem, being able to get an insight about how this legendary pianist started his career, the hardships he experienced, the connections he made, people he came across to in life and the way he loved life. I really enjoyed this book. In my opinion, despite his unrivalled success, Rubinstein was a humble man. He called himself lazy but had true passion for his art. As someone who lived and died before I came into this world, it was amazing having a little insight to his life.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome autobiography of my favorite pianist. I didn't expect his young life to be so full of adventure. I probably wouldn't like him very much if I meet him because of his spending habits, but there's no denying he lived life to the fullest. Great stories on what life was like in Europe before the first world war, and what was it like meeting famous artists of the early 20th century like Saint-Saens, Ysaye, Sargent, Picasso, Edwin Fischer, Karol Szymanowski, Albeniz, Ravel, Josef Hofmann, and others.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating to hear the tales of Rubinstein as a new pianist meeting many of his contemporaries and his experiences around them. Not to mention the story of his own incredible perseverance. Truly a book set in a different world.

[Paweł · Rating 5 out of 5]

Świetna biografia, może odrobinę dłygie niekiedy opisy. Lubię bardzo okres XXw. sprzed II wojny światowej. Zadiwiło mnie że ten człowiek poznał chyba wszystkich, których warto było poznać w tym czasie.

[Martha Rosemberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much egotism

[Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frivolous but honest, intelligent master.

[Joonas Fellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vaikka Rubinstein tämän perusteella olikin melkoinen naissankari ja tuhlaajapoika, on hän silti sympaattinen ja samaistuttava. Mukavaa lukemista ja melkoisia tarinoita tosielämästä.

[Nikola Stojkovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vrhunska autobiografija velikog pijaniste i čoveka koji je živeo slobodno i voleo život. Preporuka svima bez obzira da li se bavite muzikom.

[Leonard Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought for $1 at my local library. The world of 1900-1915 remembered here, musical and otherwise, feels completely alien compared to 1973 (when the book was written) let alone now. I enjoyed Rubinstein's personal recollections of many of the greatest turn-of-the-century musicians. The book has the reputation of being all braggadocio, but with few exceptions, Rubinstein is admiring and grateful of his peers in a way that feels almost humble. And I can't argue with his credo to love life.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rubinstein so often reports the piece was a success in concert from the very earliest part of this career, that I was prompted to find this recording of him performing the Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor to see about it, and indeed full of exploitable dynamics I can see why this piece would win over even reluctant audiences. Rubinstein is as much an evangelist for Brahms and this long, elaborate, adventurous Grand Tour of a performance career. Now, I think of that and listen more closely whenever I see "Brahms" shows on the data display on my radio when I have Sirius XM "Symphony Hall" tune in.

This is a dense and breathless telling of the young man's accidental discovery of this ability and lurching early career, on up to World War I. Along the way, he recounts all the elite and low-lifes he met, including casual dalliances with young ladies inside and outside of bordellos. (The ease of relating these sexual adventures is rather intriguing considering a life in high art, but then it was a popular art and Arthur was, really, a pop start on the road.)

Among the luminaries and characters met and described here are German pianist Heinrich Barth, Ludwig Bösendorfer himself (piano manufacturers figure in often as agents behind recital arrangements as they seek talent to showcase their often shoddy wares), Pablo Casals (a miserly anarchist here), Lina Cavalieri of My Secrets of Beauty and Arthur's pin-up girl, Russian basso and roué Feodor Chaliapin, the tragic and talented toper and gambler Paul Draper and his powerhouse wife Muriel, the original Englebert Humperdinck, various royalty, Jenny Lind, Lydia Lopoukhava future wife to John Maynard Keynes, cameo by a sullen John Reed, his best Karol Szymanowski, the Tchaikovsky brothers, and much more.

The final chapters covering World War II are fascinating for depictions of life during wartime in a vacant Paris, crowded London, and neutral Spain. At the beginning, we read of a Poland largely subsumed by its neighbors and a tense Europe were even well-attended concerts do not make it easy for a performer to obtain passports without subterfuge.

[Emilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tak wciągająca i barwna, że zaczynasz zazdrościć Rubinsteinowi tak zróżnicowanego życia. Niesamowity sposób, aby poczuć się częścią świata wielkich mistrzów - Józefa Joachima, Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego, Karola Szymanowskiego czy Emila Młynarskiego. Świetna lektura dla wszystkich melomanów, którzy chcą zrozumieć, jak kształtowali się najwybitniejsi muzycy XX-wieku, jak rozumieli muzykę i jak wiele musieli przejść, aby pozostać jej wiernymi.

[Pedro Gadelha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicht nur für Musiker.

[Juan Camacho · Rating 3 out of 5]

A child prodigy who had total recall and lived a crazy life. It's an emotional book

[Banu · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read in late 90s, surfed in it again recently and enjoyed it much!