Paul Jacobs, the late pianist and harpsichordist of the New York Philharmonic, spent the his earlier career in Europe focusing on avant-garde music. While there, he became the first to perform the complete Schoeberg piano works and later recorded them as part of a number of records he recorded for Nonesuch. Aaron Copland once said of Jacobs: "He brings to his piano a passion for the contemporary and a breadth of musical and general culture such as is rare."
Paul Jacobs (1930–83) was the pianist and harpsichordist of the New York Philharmonic. He took on the piano position in 1962 and harpsichord in 1974, after having spent the 1950s in Europe focusing on avant-garde music. Jacobs was the first to perform the complete Schoeberg piano works while in Paris and later recorded them as part of a number of records he recorded for Nonesuch throughout the 1970s (reissued on CD in the later 1980s). He taught at the Manhattan Music School and the Mannes College of Music and was a professor of music at Brooklyn College at his untimely death at the age of 53.
The New York Times described Jacobs's fingers as "infallible," lauding his playing for "its strength, probity and intellectual resource," and quoted Aaron Copland as calling him "more than a pianist ... He brings to his piano a passion for the contemporary and a breadth of musical and general culture such as is rare."
