Arrau Makes Hay

When Pianist Claudio Arrau wound up his third U.S. tour and boarded a Pan American Clipper for Puerto Rico last week, he had made plenty of hay in a shining sun.

For a long time the weather had been against him. When the dapper Chilean pianist arrived in the U.S. last fall, he was just another paid hand in the crowded concert field. A brilliant Carnegie Hall recital last November turned the trick. He was snapped up for concert dates; nine-tenths of them were sellouts. He went to Boston in January to appear as soloist with Serge Koussevitzky's resplendent orchestra. The Bostonians liked him so well that he was called back for a return engagement the same month--a thing the Boston Symphony never does. Fortnight ago he likewise reappeared, for the second time this season, with Frederick Stock's Chicago Symphony. Concertgoers could not remember when, if ever, a musician had gotten return engagements within the same season by two major U.S. orchestras.

A small, trim-mustached man who looks like a blend of Adolphe Menjou and Anthony Eden, Claudio Arrau at 38 is an old hand in the concert field. As a lad of 20 he made a short U.S. tour in 1924, but failed to go over, and left with a poor opinion of U.S. musical taste. Europe promptly claimed him. Until the war, Pianist Arrau was content to divide his lucrative concert time between Europe and South America, playing 125 concerts a year.

Like Mozart, Claudio Arrau began as a child prodigy; like Sibelius, he has been financed by his country. When he was seven, the foresighted Chilean Government shipped him off to Berlin to study under the great Liszt disciple, Martin Krause, paid all his bills for ten years. Arrau still stands high with Chilean officialdom. He is a member of its diplomatic service, received leaves of absence for his concert tours, travels on a passport which gets him almost anywhere.

Arrau's well-tailored brown suits, his irrepressible love for jewelry are deceiving. Far from a superficial showoff, he has the elements of true greatness. Though he has a prodigious technique, he does not slug the piano; he approaches his art with sober modesty, plays with fire but no unnecessary sparks.

Equally characteristic is Arrau's thoroughness. He probably holds a world's record for cycle performances; once he performed all Bach's clavier works in twelve recitals; he has also given complete Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert cycles. To preserve his vitality, he keeps to the Hay diet (separating starches and proteins), eats fruit like a jungle dweller, does Yoga exercises, sleeps ten hours a night. Says he: "A musician owes it to his audiences not to have off days."

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