Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist and composer who led the revival of the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 1900s. She was one of the earliest advocates and scholars on historically informed performance practices, and she made the first-ever recording of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord.
Landowska was born in Warsaw in 1879 and started playing the piano when she was four years old. As a child, she studied with Jan Kleczyński and then Aleksander Michalowski. Kleczynski noticed in her lessons that she had an affinity for older Baroque music, and he didn't want to impose his sensibilities onto the already apparent musical prodigy. Consequently, her mother decided that Kleczynski was too lenient of a teacher and sent her to study with the stricter Michalowski, who was a Chopin specialist. When she was 16 years old, Landowska moved to Berlin to study composition with Heinrich Urban, but was discouraged by the rigid curriculum. However, while in Berlin she composed songs and orchestral works, and she met her future husband, Henry Lew. In 1900, the young couple moved to Paris and got married. There she became associated with the Schola Cantorum, and was introduced to Vincent D'Indy, Albert Schweitzer, and other prominent performers and musicologists of the era.
Throughout the next ten years, Landowska toured Europe and Russia, and dedicated herself to researching the authentic performance practices of older music. Her husband assisted her in this research, and they often utilized libraries that they encountered while touring. She concluded that it's more appropriate to play Baroque keyboard music on the harpsichord rather than on the piano. By 1909, Landowska and her husband published the book Musique Ancienne, which was the culmination of all of their research regarding the performance practices of Baroque music. She also started teaching harpsichord classes in 1913 at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin.
Ten years later, Landowska made her debut in the United States, performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Stokowski. Also in 1923, she performed in the world premiere of Manuel de Falla's El retablo de maese Pedro, where she met Francis Poulenc and asked him to write a harpsichord concerto for her. She also commissioned a concerto from Falla in 1925, which would prove to be a modern masterpiece. In 1929, Landowska performed the premiere of Poulenc's Concert champêtre in Paris. By this time, she had settled in a town north of Paris, and was teaching from her school L'École de Musique Ancienne, which she established in 1925. She offered private and group courses and an annual summer concert series that was very popular. Landowska taught and performed in this capacity until 1940, when she had to abandon the school, her extensive library, and her home because of World War II. With the assistance of her student Denise Restout, she escaped to Portugal and then sailed to the United States, and eventually settled in Lakeville, Connecticut. She continued to perform and teach in the U.S., and at the age of 70 she recorded the complete Well-Tempered Clavier, which was highly acclaimed. Landowska was 80 years old when she passed away in Lakeville in 1959.
© RJ Lambert /TiVo
Artistas semelhantes
-
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Books 1 & 2 by Wanda Landowska
Classical - Lançado por Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording em 02/09/2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Variations Goldberg - Concerto Italien
Classical - Lançado por Naxos em 01/11/2005
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Le clavier bien tempéré, Livre I (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1952
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Wandda Landowska plays Bach, Mozart, Händel, Scarlatti, Rameau
Wanda Landowska, Yehudi Menuhin, du Conservatoire Paris, New York Philharmonic, Eugène Bigot
Classical - Lançado por Profil em 01/07/2022
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart : Rondo, Sonate pour piano & Concerto pour piano et orchestre (Diapason n°572)
Concertos - Lançado por Les Indispensables de Diapason em 24/12/2008
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, Partita No. 2 & Three-Part Inventions
Classical - Lançado por RCA Gold Seal em 24/03/1992
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Piano Recordings
Wanda Landowska, Walter Goehr Orchestra, Walter Goehr
Classical - Lançado por APR em 01/10/2014
Diapason d'orQualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas
Classical - Lançado por Warner Classics em 01/10/1993
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, Italian Concerto, BWV 971 & Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903
Classical - Lançado por Warner Classics em 01/10/1999
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Rondo, K. 511, Sonates pour piano Nos. 5 & 13 (Mono Version)
Classical - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Yehudi Menuhin, Vol. 2: Bach Sonatas for Violin & Harpsichord
Yehudi Menuhin, Wanda Landowska
Classical - Lançado por DOREMI em 20/10/2017
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le Clavier bien tempéré (Livre I)
Classical - Lançado por Naxos em 26/09/2006
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Variations Goldberg (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1952
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Violin & Keyboard Works
Yehudi Menuhin, Wanda Landowska
Classical - Lançado por Biddulph Recordings em 01/01/1996
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Sonata No. 3 & Partita No. 3 (Vol. 2)
Yehudi Menuhin, Hephzibah Menuhin, Wanda Landowska
Classical - Lançado por Naxos em 20/05/2001
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Piano & Harpischord Music
Claudio Arrau, Wanda Landowska
Classical - Lançado por RCA Red Seal em 01/01/2001
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach:Well Tempered Clavier Book I
Classical - Lançado por RCA Red Seal em 03/11/1987
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wanda Landowska: J.S. Bach
Classical - Lançado por Ermitage Records em 26/10/2020
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Récital de clavecin (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Couperin: Harpsichord Works, Livres 1-4 by Wanda Landowska
Classical - Lançado por Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording em 10/12/2021
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Le clavier bien tempéré, Livre II, Préludes et fugues Nos. 1 - 8 (Mono Version)
Classical - Lançado por BNF Collection em 01/01/1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo