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Wanda Landowska

Pioneer of the 20th-century harpsichord revival.

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Wanda Landowska

via Wikipedia: Contemporary harpsichord · see source

Wanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist who revived the harpsichord's popularity in the early 20th century.[1] In 1933, Wanda Landowska became the initial performer to commit Bach's Goldberg Variations to disc using a harpsichord.[2] She acquired French nationality through naturalization in 1938.[2]

Last updated 2026-10-07 from the source article.

Making and release

Her husband died in a car accident in April 1919.[3] She had her American debut in 1923, touring with four large Pleyel harpsichords that had a 16-foot stop.[3] She fled France in 1940 with her student Denise Restout, arriving in New York on 7 December 1941.[4][5] Despite her friends' belief that she had a bright future as a pianist, Landowska chose to focus her professional life on bringing the harpsichord back into use rather than the piano.[6]

In Paris during 1900, she married Polish folklorist Henry Lew after eloping, and for the next twelve years she instructed piano students at the Schola Cantorum.[6] Because she was a foreign national, Landowska was placed in internment when World War I broke out in 1914.[3] Landowska founded the École de Musique Ancienne in Paris in 1925, and starting in 1927 her residence at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt served as a hub for early music performance and study.[7]

What the cited sources add

A 2011 Forward article notes that Virgil Thomson wrote in 1942 that Landowska "plays the harpsichord better than anybody else ever plays anything"[8] The Forward article reports that over 50 crates of her instruments and manuscripts were confiscated by the Nazis in 1941 and most have never resurfaced.[8] American harpsichordist Skip Sempé called this plunder "the first and the most important cultural theft in France"[8] The Bach House exhibit displays a 1927 Pleyel harpsichord similar to those designed to Landowska's specifications.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Wanda Landowska" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schott, "Wanda Landowska: A centenary appraisal", Early Music, 1979, p. 467–472 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Wanda Landowska" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "La croisade en faveur des "chaudrons qui carillonnent": Sur les traces de Wanda Landowska qui consacra toute sa vie à l'amélioration de la technique et de la sonorité du clavecin", Auditorium-wanda-landowska.fr (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Wanda Landowska" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Richard, "The Pleyel Harpsichord", The British Harpsichord Society, 1979 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Wanda Landowska" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smith, "Landowska, Wanda (1879–1959)", www.glbtqarchive.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Wanda Landowska" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "'Bach' to the Future With Wanda Landowska", Forward.com, 17 May 2011 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Wanda Landowska" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kottick, Edward L. A History of the Harpsichord, Volume 1. Indiana University Press, 2003. pg. 426 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Wanda Landowska" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Wanda Landowska" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. "'Bach' to the Future With Wanda Landowska", Forward.com, 17 May 2011. facts only, no text reused. forward.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Wanda Landowska (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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