When you play in public and are that successful for so long, you hear so much from everybody in print and in films and television and restaurants and concert halls that you get this large sense of yourself. And no matter what effect that had on [Artur Rubinstein] personally—and it had a lot—when he was involved in music, whether it was playing or talking about it or listening, this would all completely disappear—just completely. And he had a direct relationship to the music, to the composer, to the piece, to the moment, to the note, to the phrase, to the movement—that was completely pure. It wasn't like it was without thought, but it was devoid of self. And if you put that all together with that real genuine humility that wasn't studied and wasn't even chosen—that made him really rare and special.
From a film on Artur Rubinstein, Rubinstein
Remembered, narrated by his son, John
Rubinstein; produced and directed by Peter Rosen.
Reprinted with permission.
