Wanda Landowska
Wanda Landowska (July 5, 1879-August 16, 1959), was a harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recording, writing, and proselytization played a large role in reviving the popularity of that instrument in the early 20th century.Hers was the first recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord.
She was criticised for the instruments she chose, as they resembled pianos in their construction, being constructed with metal frames in order to withstand the stress of a 16 foot stop. In this they resembled late German models rather than the earlier and lighter French models.
She was born in Warsaw, where her father was a lawyer, and her mother a linguist who translated Mark Twain into Polish.
She began playing piano at age four, and studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and was taught by Klenczynski and Michalowski. She studied composition with Urban in Berlin. She married Polish folklorist Henry Lew in 1900 in Paris, and taught piano at the Schola Cantorum there (1900-1912). Interested in musicology, and particularly in Bach, Couperin and Rameau, she toured the museums of Europe looking for authentic instruments on which it might be performed. She acquired old instruments and had new ones made at her request by Pleyel and Company. She taught harpsichord at the Berlin Hochschule fÃÂür Musik (1912-1919). Her husband died in 1919.
New works were written for her: Manuel de Falla's El retablo de maese Pedro marked the return of the harpsichord to the modern orchestra. De Falla later wrote a harpsichord concerto for her, and Francis Poulenc composed his Concert champÃÂêtre for her.
She established the ÃÂÃÂcole de Musique Ancienne at Paris in 1925: from 1927, her home in Saint-Leu became a center for the performance and study of old music.
When Germany invaded France, Landowska, a naturalized French citizen, born Polish, and of Jewish origin, escaped with her assistant and companion Denise Restout, leaving Saint-Leu in 1940, sojourning in southern France, and finally sailing from Lisbon to the United States. She arrived in New York on December 7, 1941.
The house in Saint-Leu had been looted, and the old instruments and manuscripts stolen. She arrived in the United States essentially without assets. She settled in Lakeville, Connecticut in 1949. Landowska re-established herself as a performer and teacher in the United States, touring extensively.
Her companion Denise Restout was editor and translator of her writings on music, including Musique ancienne, and Landowska on Music.