Ressenya

Maria Agata Szymanowska, Polish pianist and composer had a musical career that foreshadowed the broader trend in 19th century Europe of the pianist/composer/virtuoso. She toured triumphantly in many European countries. Her skill as a performer favored the development of her possibilities as a composer that is stylistically framed in the brilliant pre-romantic period and Polish sentimentalism. Her compositions show an innovative writing for keyboard that had a great influence on the pianist of Polish origin, F. Chopin (1810-1849).

Justificacions

• Composer and pianist of Pre-Romanticism
• Idolized during her lifetime and unjustly forgotten after her death, despite being one of the first virtuous professionals of the 19th century, acclaimed throughout Europe.
• One of the first famous Polish women composers in Europe.
• Her compositions -particularly piano pieces such as Polish dances (mazurkas, polonaises), waltzes, nocturnes, fantasies, songs and other small chamber works-, represent the brilliant style of the pre-Chopin era.
• Admired by the great artists, musicians and writers of the time, such as Cherubini, R. Schumann, Rossini or Goethe.
• In the Russian imperial capital, she composed for the court, gave concerts, taught music and directed an influential salon. The Tsarina awarded her the title of First Court Pianist.
• She made triumphant tours of many European countries.

Biografia

Marianna Wolowska was born in Warsaw in the year of the French Revolution, on December 14, 1789. She came from a well-to-do Jewish family, followers of the Frankist movement, who converted to Catholicism. Her mother, Barbara Wołowska (maiden name: Lanckorońska), came from a Polish noble family. Her father owned land and a prosperous brewery. In the decline of Poland's capital, divided between the three empires and looking to France with hope, this brewery became a secret meeting place for Polish patriots. Thus, they regularly received representatives of Europe's intellectual and artistic elite.

Her parents, although not musicians, offered her the best possible musical education in Warsaw. A precocious talent, she amazed audiences with the quality of her spinet improvisations. She perfected her impeccable technique along with her brilliant musical phrasing through individual work and mentoring by the experienced musicians she encountered throughout her career. From 1805 she was active within Warsaw's musical circles. The young woman, already well known in the salons of Warsaw, was sent to Paris, where in 1810 she played before several famous personalities.

Upon her return, she married Jozef Szymanowski, a landowner, and became the mother of three children: Helena and Romuald, her twins, who were born in 1811, and a year later, Celina was born. Between 1815 and 1820 she undertook her first concert tours. Her husband and family were opposed to her undertaking a career as a pianist and composer, as it was frowned upon for a woman of good family to perform. For this reason, in 1820, the marriage was divorced and the children remained with Maria after their separation. In fact, her career flourished after the divorce, the year the Russian Tsarina called her to be court pianist. In 1822, after a series of public concerts in Russia, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, she was awarded the title of first pianist at the court of the Empress of Russia.

Apart from being a virtuoso concert pianist, she is also recognized as a composer. In 1820, the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house began to publish Szymanowska's works: her Twenty Exercises and Preludes for pianoforte, her Six Romanzas for voice and piano. Her works belong to the brilliant pre-romantic period and Polish sentimentalism. 

On November 1, 1827, Szymanowska left her hometown to settle permanently in St. Petersburg. There she divided her time between the education of her daughters, composition (she wrote Ballades de Mickiewicz, Nocturne en B flat), lessons and concerts, and her salon which was frequented by the cosmopolitan elite of the capital, including musicians, poets and painters.

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 before Clara Wieck. Her playing was well received by critics and audiences alike, gaining a reputation for possessing a delicate tone, lyrical sense of virtuosity and operatic freedom. Her style of piano playing was very peculiar for its cantabile sostenuto, her rubatos, her brilliant technique and her way of understanding music was highly praised and criticized in equal parts. 
She published over a hundred works for piano including nocturnes, waltzes and etudes, and employed Polish dance forms such as the mazurka and polka. Her work as a composer is stylistically labeled as part of the brilliant pre-romantic period and Polish sentimentalism. 
At the height of her fame, Maria Szymanowska died suddenly during a cholera epidemic that struck St. Petersburg in the summer of 1831.

Obres

Angles

• Nocturne in B flat Major

Bibliografia

Adkins, Patricia. (1995). Las mujeres en la música. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. 

• Bofill Levi, Anna. (2015). Los sonidos del silencio. Aproximación a la historia de la creación musical de las mujeres. España: Editorial Aresta. 

Gwizdalanka, Danuta. Maria Sztmanowska, in Musik und Gender in Internet.

<https://mugi.hfmt-hamburg.de/receive/mugi_person_00000810?XSL.back=S> (23/12/2022) 

Pérez, Susana. (septiembre de 2021). Maria Agata Szymanowska (1789-1831). Músicas y Silencios. <https://musicasysilencios.blogspot.com/p/maria-agata-szymanowska-1789-1831.html> (26/12/22) 

Dobrzański, Slawomir. (2001). Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831): Pianist and composer (DMA Diss.). U. of Connecticut. (Quote from the abstract), <https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/AAI3010636/ > (26/12/22) 

Warszawski, Jean-Marc. (2014). «Szymanovska Maria Agata Née Wolowska» <https://www.musicologie.org/Biographies/s/szymanowska.html > (26/12/22) 

IMSLP, <https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Szymanowska,_Maria > (24/04/2022) 
 

Enfocament Didàctic

With a brilliant romantic musical style, this concert pianist and composer is an example of the importance of the piano in the 19th century. She can be included in Secondary Education when dealing with Romanticism and the small piano pieces that were performed in bourgeois salons and concert halls all over Europe. 
In the Conservatories and in the Superior Artistic Education of Music, Szymanowska's works can be worked in the instrumental specialty of Piano, Chamber Music, Singing and in subjects such as Analysis or History of Music. 
At the University, in subjects with competences in listening, didactics and musical analysis, making visible and valuing the music of women composers.

Documents