Arthur Rubinstein in Conversation with WQXR's Abram Chasins

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Chopin's birth in 1810, WQXR Music Director Abram Chasins hosted a special broadcast with piano great Arthur Rubinstein on February 2, 1960. In this broadcast, the maestro speaks about his return to Poland the previous year after an absence of 21 years, which prompts Chasins to run some tape of New York Times foreign correspondent Abe Rosenthal recounting Rubinstein's 1959 reception in Warsaw.

Rubinstein returns to the mic with more thoughts on Chopin, claiming that 'we would be 90 percent poorer' without the composer, whose work, he says, 'elicits magic from the piano.' Rubinstein believes the public listens more naturally to Chopin, and he himself feels more in harmony with Chopin than with any other musician, calling the composer the driving force of Polish resistance over the years.

WQXR Music Director Abram Chasins.

(WQXR Archive Collections)

Chasins then cues up examples of Rubinstein's interpretation of Chopin through the following commercially released pieces: The Ballade in G minor; some Mazurkas; the Barcarolle; some Preludes; and the Polonaise in F Sharp Minor.

Special thanks to Seth B. Winner Studios for the digitization and access to this broadcast!