Maria Szymanowska , nee Marianna Agata Wolowska, was born in Warsaw,
on December 14, 1789, however much of her early life is obscure, in particular
the early development of her music. She
began playing the spinet and clavichord at the age of eight, and studied piano
with Antoni Lisowski and Tomasz Gremm, and composition with Franciszek Lessel,
Jozef Elsner and Karol Lupinski.
Her first
performances were held in Warsaw and Paris in 1810, during which she married
Jozef Szymanowski. They had three
children, one of which later married the famous Polish poet, Adam
Mickiewicz. In the 1820s Szymanowska
embarked on an extensive European tour, which culminated in St. Petersburg,
where she settled and composed music for the russian imperial court. It was at this time that her marriage to
Jozef ended in divorce.
It was
not until 1815 that her professional career took off in earnest. She performed in England in 1818, and
embarked on a tour of Western Europe from 1823 to 1826 making public appearances in France, Italy, Belgium,
Holland, and Germany, and several performances in England at the Royal
Philharmonic Society, private performances for the royal family and several English dukes. Wherever she went she her performances were
received with great acclaim by critics and audiences alike, who praised her
lyrical virtuosity.
It is
noteworthy to mention that Szymanowska was the first professional piano
virtuoso in Europe and the first pianist to perform a memorized repertoire to
the public. She was certainly ahead of her time, and years ahead of Franz Liszt
and Clara Wieck-Schumann. It bears mentioning that in her time there were many women composers from across Europe who were worthy of recognition and praise, unfortunately we do not hear much about them today, if anything.
After her
lengthy tours, she returned to Warsaw where she remained for some time and in
1828 resettled in Moscow, and then St. Petersburg. There she served as the court pianist to the
imperial russian tsarina.
Maria's
compositions were mainly for solo pianos and miniatures, as well as songs and
chamber work. Slawomir Dobrzanski, a
music historian, described Szymanowska's music 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 (2001 abstract).
Such
lofty praise was not without merit. Scholars have since debated the degree to
which Szymanowska influenced the work of Chopin, and contend that her abilities
as a composer foreshadowed that of Chopin as well as that of her
contemporaries.
Szymanowska's
accomplishments, and her stature drew the attention and admiration of many notable
composers, musicians and poets, such as Luigi Cherubini, Gioacchino Rossini,
Johann Hummel, John Field, Pierre Bailot, Giuditta Pasta, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe, and Adam Mickiewicz.
She
relied on a vast repertoire of works from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin as
well as her own compositions. Her
greatest works included mazuarkas, polonaises, waltzes, nocturnes and etudes.
She died
prematurely on July 24, 1831, in St. Petersburg, a victim of a cholera outbreak
in the city.
Suggested
Website:
Free
online Audio tracks of some of Szymanowska's compositions:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/maria-szymanowska-piano-works-mw0001421208
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