Daniel Barenboim: 3 camps of piano playing

There were basically 3 distinct camps for piano music:
1) the admirers of the virtuoso school, who had no time for either Fischer or Schnabel
2)the so-called intellectuals, who were fascinated by Schnabel's analytical capacities, as manifested in his edition of the Beethoven sonatas, and who regarded Edwin Fischer as a sensitive and vivacious but purely intuitive, improvising type of pianist
3) the Fischer camp, looked of course upon the Schnabel adherents as being far too intellectual and rational.

It was through my friendship with Sir Clifford Curzon that I became aware that a musician could combine great flair and intuition with deep thought and analysis, and that this was the essence of Schnabel. Schnabel was criticised by the purists for being too emotional, and by admirers of the intuitive approach from being too cerebral. In actual fact there is no contradiction between these two qualities