By Editorial Staff

WHEN RUDOLF SERKIN was beginning to make a name for himself in Europe, an American critic described him as “a tall, gangling, bespectacled young man of twenty-five to thirty, suggesting by his general appearance a somewhat overgrown high school student.”

That was a long time ago—1931, to be exact—but Mr. Serkin has never lost either his benevolent, scholarly demeanor or his youthful, enterprising spirit. A pianist who combines technical brilliance, musical sensitivity, and personal modesty—the last being perhaps the rarest quality of all in a world-famous virtuoso—his selection as Musician of the Year will be welcomed by his fellow artists no less than by audiences throughout the world.

A Serkin concert—whether solo, chamber, or with orchestra—always is a quintessentially musical experience. Pianistic brilliance is there, but it never is permitted to obtrude, distort, or dominate. If there were a “Pianist of the Year” Award this splendid performer surely could lay claim to it. But even more does he merit the designation of Musician of the Year, for Rudolf Serkin above all is a musician whose chosen instrument happens to be the piano.

His artistic characteristics were apparent from the start. As a child prodigy, at the age of four he could not only negotiate the keyboard, but read scores. Even then, he knew what he was playing. For his Berlin debut at the age of seventeen he chose to play Bach’s Goldberg Variations. “There were only twenty people in the audience,” he later recalled, “but among them were Busoni, Schnabel, and Einstein.” The cognoscenti came first; the crowds followed.

Serkin is most frequently associated with the classical Viennese repertory, but his own background encompasses a number of traditions. He was born in the Bohemian city of Eger, now part of Czechoslovakia, of Russian Jewish parentage, and went to the Austrian capital for musical studies as a child. Among his teachers there was Arnold Schoenberg. Adolf Busch, the great violinist, invited him to stay at his house in Berlin, thus beginning their legendary association—a meeting of minds of two musicians different in age but akin in artistry. Their sonata and chamber music performances were among the most celebrated events of the 1930s. Indeed, one may still hear on LP reissues the Bach Brandenburg Concertos by the Busch Chamber Players, with Rudolf Serkin playing the keyboard parts on the piano.

The rapport between Busch and Serkin extended to the familial as well as the musical level, for the young pianist married his friend’s daughter Irene Busch. Both he and his wife have been American citizens for years, and among their six children is a pianist of the next generation, Peter Serkin.

It was Busch who first brought Serkin to the United States, for an appearance in 1933 at the Coolidge Festival in Washington, D.C. Subsequently he made his New York debut with the Philharmonic under Toscanini, followed by his first Carnegie Hall recital. Critics were impressed not only with his musicianship but his technical and tonal skills; it was obvious that a rather special pianist had arrived on the American scene.

From that day to this, Serkin has occupied a niche peculiarly his own. He has performed over a hundred times with the New York Philharmonic—more than any other soloist—and has hardly missed a major orchestra throughout the world. But he has remained active as chamber participant, for Rudolf Serkin is not a performer content to abide within the limitations of the solo repertory. One of his favorite collaborators was the late Pablo Casals, whose festivals he joined both in the Pyrenees and Puerto Rico.

Serkin has always displayed a deep understanding of young musicians. In fact, when he turns down requests for interviews—which he usually does—he often urges the would-be interviewers to talk instead to young players, on the grounds that they need the exposure more. Unlike some performers of his stature, he has never scorned teaching. From 1968 to 1976 he was director of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, one of the country’s foremost schools for advanced music students.

But perhaps it is another educational center, the Marlboro Festival in Vermont that most truly reflects the extraordinary contribution of Rudolf Serkin to the musical world. At Marlboro every summer outstanding young musicians gather from the world over, to study with Serkin and other eminent performers on his faculty, and to work together at refining their capabilities not as soloists but as ensemble players. At Marlboro the Republic of Music may be said to take on its fullest and richest manifestation under the guiding genius of Rudolf Serkin.

At this stage of his life-he attained his seventy-fifth birthday on March 28, 1978—awards and honors are nothing new to Rudolf Serkin. He holds half a dozen honorary degrees, is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor, and was the first musician invited to perform at a White House state dinner by President Jimmy Carter. Yet every new award is a fresh attestation of the admiration and affection felt so universally for this unique artist. In a recent salute to him Carlos Moseley, former president of the New York Philharmonic, said: “It is not just Rudolf Serkin the pianist who is honored: it is Rudolf Serkin the man.”

In that spirit we happily bestow on him our designation as Musician of the Year.