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Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959)[1] was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century. She was the first person to record Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord in 1933. She became a naturalized French citizen in 1938.[2]

Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska in 1937
Background information
Birth nameWanda Aleksandra Landowska
Born(1879-07-05)5 July 1879
Warsaw, Poland
Died16 August 1959(1959-08-16) (aged 80)
Lakeville, Connecticut, United States
Occupation(s)
  • Pianist
  • Harpsichordist
  • Academic
Instrument(s)Harpsichord
External audio
You may hear Wanda Landowska introducing and performing Johann Sebastian Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias, BWV 722-801 in 1959 Here on archive.org

Life and career



Life in Europe


Leonid Pasternak. Concert of Wanda Landowska in Moscow (1907), a pastel from the Tretyakov Gallery.
Leonid Pasternak. Concert of Wanda Landowska in Moscow (1907), a pastel from the Tretyakov Gallery.

Landowska was born in Warsaw to Jewish parents. Her father was a lawyer, and her mother a linguist who translated Mark Twain into Polish. She began playing piano at the age of four, and studied at the Warsaw Conservatory with the senior Jan Kleczyński and Aleksander Michałowski. She was considered a child prodigy.[3]

She studied composition and counterpoint under Heinrich Urban in Berlin, and had lessons in Paris with Moritz Moszkowski. She began her performing career in Paris, where her recitals in that city and other European cities garnered praise from critics.[3] She was interested in the music of J. S. Bach, whose works for harpsichord were included in her recitals by 1903, earning praise from Albert Schweitzer.[3]

She decided to devote her career to the harpsichord rather than the piano, against the wishes of her friends, who thought she had a promising future as a pianist.[3] In 1908–09, she toured Russia with a Pleyel harpsichord, similar to the 1889 model that the firm displayed at the Paris Exposition.[4] After eloping with and marrying Polish folklorist and ethnomusicologist Henry Lew in 1900 in Paris, she taught piano at the Schola Cantorum there (1900–1912).[5]

She later taught harpsichord at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik (1912–1919). When World War I started in 1914, she was interned on the grounds that she was a foreign national. In April 1919, a few months after WWI ended, her husband died in a car accident. She had her American debut in 1923, touring major cities with four Pleyel Grand Modele de Concert harpsichords, which were huge seven-and-a-half foot long instruments with foot pedal-controlled registers.[5] These were large, heavily built harpsichords with a 16-foot stop (a set of strings an octave below normal pitch) and owed much to piano construction.[citation needed]

Deeply interested in musicology, and particularly in the works of Bach, Couperin and Rameau, she toured the museums of Europe looking at original keyboard instruments; she acquired old instruments and had new ones made at her request by Pleyel and Company. Responding to criticism by fellow Bach specialist Pablo Casals, she once said: "You play Bach your way, and I'll play him 'his' way."[6]

Landowska's favored instrument, the Pleyel Grand Modèle de Concert (1927) Berlin: Musikinstrumentenmuseum
Landowska's favored instrument, the Pleyel Grand Modèle de Concert (1927) Berlin: Musikinstrumentenmuseum

A number of important new works were written for her: Manuel de Falla's El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Peter's Puppet Show) marked the return of the harpsichord to the modern orchestra. Falla later wrote a harpsichord concerto for her, and Francis Poulenc composed his Concert champêtre for her.[7]

She taught at the Curtis Institute of Music from 1925 until 1928. In 1925, she established the École de Musique Ancienne based in Paris:[8] from 1927, her home in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt became a center for the performance and study of old music. During this time Landowska frequented the salon of Natalie Clifford Barney, to both socialize and perform.[9]


Life in America


When the German Army invaded France, Landowska fled with her student and domestic partner Denise Restout.[9] After leaving Saint-Leu in 1940, sojourning in Banyuls-sur-Mer, a commune in southern France, where her friend, sculptor Aristide Maillol was living, they sailed from Lisbon to the United States. Believing the Nazi threat to be temporary she had left with only two suitcases.[10] She arrived in New York on 7 December 1941, the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Her home in Saint-Leu was looted, and her instruments and manuscripts were stolen,[11] so she arrived in the United States essentially with no assets.[9]

Her 1942 performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations at New York's Town Hall was the first occasion in the 20th century when the piece was played on the harpsichord, the instrument for which it had been written.[12]

NYWTS/LOC cph.3c11230. Wanda Landowska, 1953
NYWTS/LOC cph.3c11230. Wanda Landowska, 1953

She settled in Lakeville, Connecticut in 1949, and re-established herself as a performer and teacher in the United States, touring extensively. Her last public performance was in 1954.[12] Her partner, Denise Restout, was editor and translator of her writings on music, including Musique ancienne, and Landowska on Music, published posthumously in 1964.[9]

She died at Lakeville on 16 August 1959.


Recordings


Landowska recorded extensively for the Victor Talking Machine Company/RCA Victor and the Gramophone Company/EMI/HMV.


Compositions



Literary works



Reviews and opinions


External audio
You may hear Wanda Landowska performing Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 in 1945 Here on archive.org
A favourite 16th-century Landowska harpsichord from her collection, with painting on lid, presently housed in the Hans Adler memorial music collection.[17]
A favourite 16th-century Landowska harpsichord from her collection, with painting on lid, presently housed in the Hans Adler memorial music collection.[17]

Further reading



References


  1. Schott, Howard (1979). "Wanda Landowska: A centenary appraisal". Early Music. 7 (4): 467–472. doi:10.1093/earlyj/7.4.467.
  2. "La croisade en faveur des "chaudrons qui carillonnent": Sur les traces de Wanda Landowska qui consacra toute sa vie à l'amélioration de la technique et de la sonorité du clavecin" (PDF). Auditorium-wanda-landowska.fr. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  3. Kottick, Edward L. A History of the Harpsichord, Volume 1. Indiana University Press, 2003. pg. 425
  4. Kottick, Edward L. A History of the Harpsichord, Volume 1. Indiana University Press, 2003. pg. 426
  5. Kottick, Edward L. A History of the Harpsichord, Volume 1. Indiana University Press, 2003. pg. 428
  6. "Re: GG and Landowska's famous misquoted remark". Glenngould.org. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  7. Bonnie Zimmerman (21 August 2013). Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Cultures. p. 435. ISBN 9781136787508.
  8. "Wanda Landowska" (in Polish). Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  9. Smith, Patricia Juliana. "Landowska, Wanda (1879–1959)" (PDF).
  10. "'Bach' to the Future With Wanda Landowska". Forward.com. 17 May 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  11. Shapreau, Carla (8 February 2020). "The Nazi Confiscation of Wanda Landowska's Musical Collection and Its Aftermath". Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization in Association with University of Liverpool Press. 32: 429–449 via Project Muse.
  12. "Early music harpsichordist Wanda Landowska plays Bach at New York City's Town Hall". Jwa.org. 21 February 1942. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  13. Gavoty, Bernard (1957). Wanda Landowska. Geneva, Switzerland: René Kister. p. 32.
  14. Reminiscences of Wanda Landowska at IMDb
  15. "Wanda Landowska, Vol. V – Scarlatti (St Laurent Studio YSL 78-099". Norbeck, Peters & Ford. Norbeck, Peters & Ford. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  16. Sol Babitz (11 March 1965). "The Landowska Approach". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  17. "The Hans Adler Collection of Early Instruments: Wanda Landowska Harpsichord". Hansadlercollection.blogspot.ca. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  18. HOLCMAN, JAN. “WANDA LANDOWSKA 1879 – 1959.” The Polish Review, vol. 4, no. 3, 1959, pp. 3–6. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25776247. Accessed 18 February 2020.



На других языках


- [en] Wanda Landowska

[es] Wanda Landowska

Wanda Landowska (Varsovia, Polonia; 5 de julio de 1879-Lakeville, Connecticut, Estados Unidos; 16 de agosto de 1959) fue una clavecinista y pianista polaca.

[ru] Ландовска, Ванда

Ванда Ландовска, традиц. Ландо́вская[5] (польск. Wanda Landowska; 5 июля 1879, Варшава — 16 августа 1959, Лэйквилл, штат Коннектикут) — польская пианистка и (преимущественно) клавесинистка , музыкальный педагог. Ключевая фигура в возрождении клавесина в первой половине XX века.



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