A celebrated early romantic Polish piano virtuoso moves to Paris and wows Europe… a decade before Frederic Chopin… and she is a She.
Maria Syzmanowska, though born in 1789 to a modest Jewish family, began her career by first teaching herself the piano, then by seeking strong teachers in Warsaw, debuting in both Warsaw and Paris in 1810. An early adopter of performing repertoire from memory, her playing was praised for its lyricism and virtuosity.
One of the first women to be a touring concert artist, between 1815 and 1826 she played engagements in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. The stress on her marriage of such a life (her landholding husband was not pleased with these comings and goings) resulted in separation, and she took her three children with her.
Szymanowska featured her own compositions on her programs… as did most composer-virtuosos of the time… and a majority of her nearly 100 surviving works are for piano, most of them miniatures: short works that display her compositional creativity and pianistic ability.
As did Chopin after her, she wrote cosmopolitan waltzes, Polish mazurkas, and études and nocturnes… two genres she introduced to Polish audiences. And almost all of her works were printed by publishing houses across Europe.
She returned to Warsaw, but by 1827 she was off again, this time to St. Petersburg (where she had already been named First Pianist to the Russian court), hosting a regular salon attended by a guest list of artistic and social elites. Szymanowska continued to teach and perform until her death in a cholera epidemic in 1831.
Maria Szymanowska… a Composing Woman.
Repertoire
Nocturne in A flat major for 3 hands, “Le murmure”
Eighteen Dances of Different Genres
Świtezianka, art song (translates as “The Nymph of Lake Świtez”)
Serenade for cello and piano
Fantaisie for piano solo
Romance à la nuit, art song
Supporting Materials
Images
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Szymanowska-Kokular_Aleksander.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Szymanowska.jpg
Accessible websites relevant to the composer
http://www.maria-szymanowska.eu/index-en
https://polishmusic.usc.edu/research/composers/maria-szymanowska/
https://www.musicbywomen.org/composer/maria-szymanowska/
Timeline
Maria Agata Szymanowska (née Wołowska, 1789-1831)
Family heritage:
· The Wołowski family originally bore the surname Schor, and were members of a heretical sect of Judaism (Frankists); they changed the name upon conversion to Christianity in 1759, and many of its members served in government; her father, Franciszek Ksawery Wołowski, owned a successful brewery
· Szymanowska’s mother, Barbara Lanckorońska, was from an important Catholic noble family (Lanckoroński), dating back to the 14th century
1789 – Born Marianna Wołowska in Warsaw, one of ten children
1795 – Third Partition of Poland: remaining Kingdom is divided between Russia, Prussia, and Austria
1797 – begins to take piano (+ composition?) lessons with leading teachers in Warsaw
1810 – gives first public performances in Warsaw
- travels to Paris to debut as pianist in high-society salons; Cherubini dedicates his Fantaisie in C to her
-she returns to Warsaw and marries petty nobleman Józef Szymanowski
[Chopin is born near Warsaw]
1811 – birth of twins, Helena and Romuald
1812 – birth of daughter, Celina
1815 – high-profile concert at the palace of Prince Radziwiłł, Warsaw
-first tour includes Dresden and Vienna, plays for Congress of Vienna
1816 – first publication, Historic Polish Songs
1817-20 – further tours to London, St. Petersburg, and Berlin
1819 – Breitkopf & Härtel (Leipzig) publish Twenty Excercises and Preludes and Six Romances for Voice and Piano
1820 – separates from her husband, keeps custody of her daughters; publishes Fantaisie
-publishes Divertissement for piano and violin in St. Petersburg
1821 – publishes 4 Waltzes for piano, 3 hands in Warsaw
1822 – Russian tour, organized by John Field: Vilnius, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, Kyiv, Lvov; receives the title “First Pianist of the Empress of All the Russias”; publishes songs in Warsaw
1823 – tours Bohemia, meets Goethe at Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad); he falls in love with her and her sister, Kazimiera, and writes poetry for the sisters
1824 – performs at Paris Conservatoire; her nocturne Le murmure becomes fashionably successful; Italian tour
1825 – tours Paris (performs at the Louvre), London, Amsterdam
1826 – publishes 24 Mazurka’s or Polish National Dances in London [sic]
1827 – Warsaw performances witnessed by teenaged Chopin
-moves permanently to St. Petersburg with her daughters
-begins corresponding with Polish nationalist poet Adam Mickiewicz
1828 – retires from the concert stage to form an important piano studio and intellectual salon; publishes songs (on Mickiewicz’s texts) in Moscow and Kyiv
1831 – Szymanowska dies in a cholera epidemic, July 24, St. Petersburg
1834 – Celina Szymanowska marries Adam Mickiewicz
1838 – Celina declares herself a prophet, an incarnation of the Mother of God, the Redeemer of Poland, Polish émigrés, and Polish Jews; she is instutitionalized
1855 – Celina dies in Paris; Mickiewicz dies in Istanbul, rallying for Polish freedom
1800-1886: Filippina Brzeżinska-Szymanowska, sister of Józef Szymanowski, composer of songs and parlor music for piano
