Maria Agata Szymanowska

Maria Szymanowska, born Marianne Agata Wolowska ( born December 14, 1789 in Warsaw, † July 25, 1831 in Saint Petersburg ) was a Polish virtuoso pianist and composer.

Life

Józef Elsner taught Maria Szymanowska together with Antoni Lisowski and Tomasz Grem in piano and composition. Their first public concerts she gave in 1810 in Warsaw and Paris.

She married in 1810 the estate owner Józef Szymanowski. Three children were born, but the marriage was unhappy. Her husband had no understanding of their musical work. In 1820 she got a divorce and increasingly devoted himself to composing piano pieces and chamber music. Concerts they were largely just friends and visitors. From this period also came her most famous piano piece " Vingt et Exercices Preludes " and the majority of their songs.

After his first concerts in Warsaw 1822 concert life that had to share with her their three children began. In the years 1823-1827 she undertook an extensive tour of Europe: Germany, England, France, Switzerland, Italy and Russia. Maria Szymanowska was allegedly the first pianist who played her pieces from memory. In Berlin and London she played before the royal court in Weimar, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. 1828, she received the call to come as Hofpianistin the Empress to St. Petersburg. They moved around and also gave piano lessons at the court. It maintained a musical salon which was attended by many Polish and Russian artists and aristocrats. The Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz married her daughter Celina Szymanowska. She died at only 41 years in Petersburg cholera.

Work

Szymanowska set a milestone in the cultural life of several countries. However, she was more famous for her performances as for their compositions. F. Malevsky she described as "highly extraordinary woman ," Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as " enchanting Goddess of music " and Adam Mickiewicz as " the queen of sounds." Experts estimated their brilliant, expressive performance pieces. Been judged by the critics Maurycy Mochnacki 1827: " You can talk and sing the piano ."

Compositions

She wrote over a hundred compositions. Most and most interesting pieces are piano pieces like etudes, Preludes, dances, etc. She composed over twenty songs with piano accompaniment and three pieces of chamber music. Her compositions are described as " vorromantisch " and are characterized by brilliant, virtuoso piano, profound expressiveness ( romances ), simplicity in form and text, by the lack of polyphony and motif developments ( Poniatoska 1993). Polish and Russian scholars consider them as an important forerunner of Frédéric Chopin, particularly in the use of the brilliant style, Mazurkas, Polonaises, Nocturnes, etc.

Goethe

• To Ottilie von Goethe on August 18, 1823 from Marienbad: Madame Szymanowska, a female bumblebee with the slight Polish Facility has made me these last few days most gratifying; behind the Polish amiability was the greatest talent.
• Wrote on 18 August 1823 in his diary: accomplished and poems written in the Zwey album. Madame Szymanowska visited me. Curious about the contents of the album.
• To Eckermann on December 1, 1831 First, I had, as you know, just the elegy as an independent poem in itself. Then I visited the Szymanowska that denselbigen summer had been with me in Marienbad and their lovely melodies an echo of those teen - fated days awoke in me.