Maria Szymanowska (Polish pronunciation: ; born Marianna Agata Wołowska;

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, 14 December 1789 – 25 July 1831,

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

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) was a Polish composer and one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. She toured extensively throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, especially in the 1820s, before settling permanently in

. In the Russian imperial capital, she composed for the court, gave concerts, taught music, and ran an influential salon. Her compositions—largely piano pieces, songs, and other small chamber works, as well as the first piano concert etudes and nocturnes in Poland—typify the ' of the era preceding Frédéric Chopin. She was the mother of Celina Szymanowska, who married the Polish Romantic poet

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Ro ...

Biography

Marianna Agata Wołowska was born in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

on 14 December 1789 into a prosperous

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

family with

Frankist Frankism was a heretical Sabbatean Jewish religious movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, centered on the leadership of the Jewish Messiah claimant Jacob Frank, who lived from 1726 to 1791. Frank rejected religious norms and said that his fol ...

Jewish roots, one of her ancestors being Salomon Ben Elijah (or Jacob ben Judah Leib/Jacob Leibowicz), the personal assistant of

Jacob Frank Jacob Joseph Frank ( he, יעקב פרנק; pl, Jakub Józef Frank; born Jakub Lejbowicz; 1726 – December 10, 1791) was a Polish-Jewish religious leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of the self-proclaimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi (1626 ...

. Her father Franciszek Wołowski was a landlord and a brewer. Her mother Barbara Wołowska (née Lanckorońska) came from a noble Polish Lanckoroński family. The history of her early years and especially her musical studies is uncertain; she appears to have studied piano with Antoni Lisowski and Tomasz Gremm, and composition with Franciszek Lessel, Józef Elsner and Karol Kurpiński. She gave her first public recitals in Warsaw and Paris in 1810. In the same year, she married Józef Szymanowski (d. 1832), with whom she had three children while living in Poland: Helena (1811–61), who married a Polish lawyer Franciszek Malewski, and twins Celina (1812–55), who married

, and Romuald (1812–40), who became an engineer). The children remained with Maria after her separation from Szymanowski in 1820. The marriage ended in divorce. Szymanowska died of cholera during the summer 1831 epidemic in St Petersburg. She is presumed to be unrelated to Karol Szymanowski, considered to be the most famous Polish composer of the 20th century.

Performances

Her professional piano career began in 1815, with performances in England in 1818, a tour of Western Europe 1823–1826, including both public and private performances in Germany, France, England (on multiple occasions), Italy, Belgium and Holland. A number of these performances were given in private for royalty; in England alone during 1824, her performance schedule included concerts at the

Royal Philharmonic Society The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...

(18 May 1824), Hanover Square (11 June 1824, with members of the royal family present) and other performances for several English dukes. Her playing was very well received by critics and audiences alike, garnering her a reputation for a delicate tone, lyrical sense of

virtuosity ''Virtuosity'' is a 1995 American science fiction action film directed by Brett Leonard and starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Howard W. Koch Jr. served as an executive producer for the film. The film was released in the United Stat ...

and operatic freedom. She was one of the first professional piano virtuosos in 19th-century Europe and one of the first pianists to perform memorized repertoire in public, a decade ahead of Franz Liszt and

Clara Schumann Clara Josephine Schumann (; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a ...

. After years of touring, she returned to Warsaw for some time before relocating in early 1828, first to Moscow and then to St. Petersburg, where she served as the court pianist to the Empress of Russia Alexandra Feodorovna.

Compositions

Szymanowska composed around 100 piano pieces. Like many women composers of her time, she wrote music predominantly for instrumentation she had access to, including many solo piano pieces and miniatures, songs, and some chamber works. Her work is typically labeled, stylistically, as part of the pre-romantic period ' and of Polish Sentimentalism. Szymanowska scholar Sławomir Dobrzański describes her playing and its historical significance as follows:

Her Etudes and Preludes show innovative keyboard writing; the Nocturne in B flat is her most mature piano composition; Szymanowska's Mazurkas represent one of the first attempts at stylization of the dance; Fantasy and Caprice contain an impressive vocabulary of pianistic technique; her polonaises follow the tradition of polonaise-writing created by Michal Kleofas Ogiński. Szymanowska's musical style is parallel to the compositional starting point of Frédéric Chopin; many of her compositions had an obvious impact on Chopin's mature musical language.

While scholars have debated the reach of her influence on her compatriot Chopin, her career as a pianist and composer strikingly foreshadows his own, as well as the broader trend in 19th-century Europe of the virtuoso pianist/composer, whose abilities as a performer expanded her technical possibilities as a composer.

Reputation

Because of her stature as a performance artist and because of her salon, Szymanowska developed a strong web of connections with some of the most notable composers, performing musicians, and poets of her day, including:

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

, Luigi Cherubini,

Frederic Chopin Frederic may refer to: Places United States * Frederic, Wisconsin, a village in Polk County * Frederic Township, Michigan, a township in Crawford County ** Frederic, Michigan, an unincorporated community Other uses * Frederic (band), a Japanese r ...

Gioacchino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...

, Johann Hummel, John Field; Pierre Baillot,

Giuditta Pasta Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Pasta (née Negri; 26 October 1797 – 1 April 1865) was an Italian soprano opera singer. She has been compared to the 20th-century soprano Maria Callas. Career Early career Pasta was born Giuditta Angiola Maria Co ...

;

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

and

. Beethoven, Hummel and Field dedicated compositions to her. Goethe is rumored to have fallen deeply in love with her.Briscoe, J. R. (Ed.). (2004). ''New historical anthology of music by women'' (Vol. 1). Indiana University Press. Pgs. 126-127. The salon she established in St. Petersburg drew especially prominent crowds, augmenting her status as a court musician.

Modern Works

*
Album per pianoforte
'. Maria Szmyd-Dormus, ed. Kraków: PWM, 1990. *
25 Mazurkas
'. Irena Poniatowska, ed. Bryn Mawr, PA: Hildegard, 1991. *
Music for Piano
'. Sylvia Glickman, ed. Bryn Mawr, PA: Hildegard, 1991. *
Six Romances
'. Maja Trochimczyk, ed. Bryn Mawr, PA: Hildegard, 1998.

Discography

*
Szymanowska: Complete Dances for Solo Piano
'' Alexander Kostrita, piano. Grand Piano GP685, 2015 *
Three Generations of Mazurkas: Polish dances for Piano by Szymanowska, Chopin, Szymanowski
'' Alexander Kostrita, piano. Divine Art DDA25123, 2014 *
Maria Szymanowska: Complete Piano Works
'' Sławomir P. Dobrzański, piano. Acte Préalable AP0281-83, 201

*
Maria Szymanowska: Ballades & Romances
'' Elżbieta Zapolska, mezzo-soprano; Bart van Oort, fortepiano Broadwood 1825. Acte Préalable AP0260, 201

*
Maria Szymanowska: Piano Works
'. Anna Ciborowska, piano. Dux, 2004. *
Szymanowska: Album
'. Carole Carniel, piano. Ligia Digital, 2005. *
Alla Polacca: Chopin et l'école polonaise de piano
'. Jean-Pierre Armengaud, piano. Mandala : Distribution Harmonia Mundi, 2000. *
Inspiration to Chopin
'. Karina Wisniewska, piano. Denon, 2000. *
Riches and Rags: A Wealth of Piano Music by Women
'. Nancy Fierro, piano. Ars Musica Poloniae, 1993.

References

External links

* Dobrzanski, Sławomir.
Maria Szymanowska - Bibliography."
''Polish Music Journal'' 5, no. 1 (Summer 2002).
Maria Szymanowska Society
* * *Conference papers from the 2014 Maria Szymanowska Symposium in
Annales / Académie Polonaise des Sciences
' 16. (Centres Scientifique à Paris: Varsovie-Paris, 2014).
Scores by Maria Szymanowska
in digital library

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:Szymanowska, Maria Agata 1789 births 1831 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century keyboardists 19th-century Polish musicians 19th-century Polish people Adam Mickiewicz Women classical composers Classical pianists from the Russian Empire Composers from the Russian Empire People from the Russian Empire of Polish descent Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Musicians from Warsaw Polish classical pianists Polish people of Jewish descent Polish Romantic composers Polish salon-holders Polish women pianists Women classical pianists 19th-century women composers Polish women composers 19th-century women pianists