Theodor Leschetizky (sometimes spelled Leschetitzky; ; 22 June 1830 – 14 November 1915) was a Polish pianist, professor, and composer active in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

. He was born in

Landshut Landshut (; ) is a town in Bavaria, Germany, on the banks of the Isar, River Isar. Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free state (government), Free State of Bavaria, and the seat of the surrou ...

in the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia in Eastern Europe. The Cr ...

, then a

crown land Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

of the Habsburg domain. A well-regarded teacher, his many students included Ignaz Friedman,

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; r 1859– 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist, composer and statesman who was a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the nation's Prime Minister of Poland, prime minister and foreign minister durin ...

, and

Artur Schnabel Artur Schnabel (17 April 1882 – 15 August 1951) was an Austrian-born classical pianist, composer and Pedagogy, pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th ...

Life

Theodor Leschetizky was born on 22 June 1830 at the estate of the family of Count Potocki in

(Łańcut), in what was then Austrian Galicia and is now southeastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Joseph Leschetizky, his father, was a gifted pianist and music teacher of Viennese birth. His mother Thérèse von Ullmann was a gifted singer of German origin. His father gave him his first piano lessons and then took him to Vienna to study with Carl Czerny. At age eleven, he performed a Czerny piano concerto in Landshut, with Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, the son of

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

, conducting. At the age of fifteen he started to tutor his first students. By the age of eighteen he was a well-known virtuoso in Vienna and beyond. His composition teacher was Simon Sechter, an eminent professor who was the teacher of many other successful musicians. At the invitation of his friend Anton Rubinstein, he went to St. Petersburg to teach in the court of the Grand Duchess Yelena Pavlovna. Remaining there from 1852 to 1877, he was head of the piano department and one of the founders of the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music in 1862. While in Russia he married one of his most famous students, Anna Essipova, the second of his four wives, with whom he had two children; one of them was his daughter, the well-known singer and teacher, Theresa, the other was his son Robert. In 1878 he returned to Vienna and began teaching there, creating one of the most eminent private piano schools in the world. Promising pianists flocked to his villa in the Währing Cottage District on Karl-Ludwig-Straße, Vienna, coming from all over the world, with a great many from the United States, among them singer Clara Clemens, the daughter of

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

. From 1904 to 1908, he was assisted by one of his students, Ethel Newcomb, an experience which proved a fertile ground for background research for her 1921 book, ''Leschetizky as I Knew Him''. Concert pianist and teacher Edwin Hughes was his assistant in 1909 and 1910. He taught until the age of 85, thereafter leaving for

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, where he died on 14 November 1915. He was later buried at the

Vienna Central Cemetery The Vienna Central Cemetery () is one of the largest Cemetery, cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its significance as Vienna's big ...

Motto

Leschetizky's motto: "No life without art, no art without life!"

Leschetizky's descendants

He was survived by a son, Robert (Dresden), whose family returned to Bad Ischl after his death. His descendants still live in Bad Ischl and there is a Leschetizky Villa on Leschetizky-Straße, the summer resort where he often vacationed with his friend

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

. Leschetizky had a granddaughter, Ilse Leschetizky (1910–1997), who was a distinguished pianist and teacher. One of her daughters,

Margret Tautschnig Margret may refer to - *1410 Margret, an asteroid *Árný Margrét (born 2001), Icelandic musician *, a Norwegian steamship in service 1994-06/18 *Margret Benedictsson (1866–1956), Icelandic-Canadian suffrage activist and journalist *Margret Borgs ...

, continues the Leschetizky tradition with the '' Leschetizky-Verein Österreich'' in Bad Ischl. This organisation was co-founded by the Belgian pianist Peter Ritzen.

Leschetizky the composer

Leschetizky composed over a hundred characteristic piano pieces, two operas: '' Die Brüder von San Marco'' and '' Die Erste Falte'', thirteen songs and a one-movement piano concerto. Opus numbers were given to 49 works. Although his piano pieces are primarily smaller works in the salon music vein, they are expressively lyrical on the one hand while exploiting the piano's technical capabilities to great effect on the other. Most of his music has been out of print since the early twentieth century except for the ''Andante Finale'', Op. 13 (a paraphrase for piano left hand on the famous sextet from the opera '' Lucia di Lammermoor'' by

Donizetti Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''bel canto'' opera ...

); and ''Les deux alouettes'', Op. 2, No. 1.

Leschetizky the teacher

His most important legacy is as the main teacher of numerous great pianists such as

, Aline van Barentzen, Ernesto Bérumen, Alexander Brailowsky, Agnes Gardner Eyre, Ignaz Friedman, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Florence Parr Gere, Katharine Goodson, Mark Hambourg, Helen Hopekirk, Mieczysław Horszowski, Edwin Hughes, Frank La Forge, Mabel Lander, Ethel Leginska, Marguerite Melville Liszniewska, Frank Merrick, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Elly Ney,

Marie Novello Marie Novello, also known as Marie Novello Williams (born Maria Williams; 31 March 1884 – 21 June 1928) was a Welsh people, Welsh pianist. She was one of Theodor Leschetizky's last students and performed in public from childhood. Her early ...

, John Powell, Auguste de Radwan, Zudie Harris Reinecke,

Gertrude Ross Gertrude Ross (1889-1957) was a versatile American composer and pianist who wrote music for films and stage as well as songs and instrumental works. She researched Japanese and Hebrew music for her own compositions and collected Spanish folksongs ...

, Jadwiga Sarnecka,

, Richard Singer, Józef Śliwiński, Bertha Tapper,

Isabelle Vengerova Isabelle Vengerova (; 7 February 1956) was a Russian, later American, pianist and music teacher. She was born Izabella Afanasyevna Vengerova (Изабелла Афанасьевна Венгерова) in Minsk (now in Belarus) in the family o ...

, Maria Wilhelmj, Vita Witek, Paul Wittgenstein,

Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler (July 16, 1863 – August 20, 1927) was an Austrian-born American pianist. Biography Zeisler was born Fannie Blumenfeld on July 16, 1863, in Bielitz, Austrian Silesia, to Jewish parents. She emigrated to the United St ...

, Agnes Hope Pillsbury, and many others.

Recordings

* In February 1906, Leschetizky recorded twelve

piano roll A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. Piano rolls, like other music rolls, are continuous rolls of paper with holes punched into them. These perforations represent note contro ...

s for Welte-Mignon, including seven of his own compositions. * Piano Concerto, Piano works - Hubert Rutkowski, piano Acte Préalable AP0191, © 2008 (CD) * Piano Concerto, op.9; Overture to "Die erste Falte/ Contes de Jeunesses" - Peter Ritzen, piano

Naxos Records Naxos comprises numerous companies, divisions, imprints, and labels specializing in classical music but also audiobooks and other genres. The premier label is Naxos Records, which focuses on classical music. Naxos Musical Group encompasses about ...

8.223803 (CD) * Piano Works (with the famous left hand piece Andante Finale, op.13) - Peter Ritzen, piano

8.223525 (CD) * Leschetizky Piano Music

Centaur A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...

CRC2319

Bibliography

* Theodor Leschetizky, ''Das Klavierwerk''. Cologne: Haas 2000.

References

Polona Polona is a Polish digital library, which provides digitized books, magazines, graphics, maps, music, fliers and manuscripts from collections of the National Library of Poland and co-operating institutions. It began its operation in 2006. Colle ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leschetizky, Theodor 1830 births 1915 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century male musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century male musicians Polish Romantic composers Polish classical pianists Composers from Austria-Hungary Composers from the Russian Empire Polish male classical composers Polish music educators Male classical pianists Piano educators People from Łańcut Pupils of Carl Czerny Pupils of Simon Sechter Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery