Description

ALEKSANDER MICHALOWSKI (KAMIANETS-PODILSKYI, 17 MAY [O.S. 5 MAY], 1851 – WARSAW, 17 OCTOBER, 1938)

 

 

 

 

Michalowski was born in 1851 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, in his present-day Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. He started taking piano lessons at the age of 6. In 1867, at the age of 16, he enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory as a pupil of Ignaz Moscheles, Carl Reinecke, and Theodor Coccius. Two years later, he traveled to Berlin, where he studied under Polish pianist Carl Tausig. In 1870, he settled down in Warsaw, and he began his teaching career in 1874.

Around that time, Michalowski befriended and studied with Karol Mikuli, who had received lessons from Frédéric Chopin between 1844 and 1848. Mikuli later went on to become head of the Lviv Conservatory. Mikuli shared many of Chopin’s ideas and traditions with Michalowski. Michalowski also met Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, a fellow pupil of Chopin, who played some mazurkas for him. His teacher, Moscheles, had also been a friend of Chopin’s.

Michalowski is often known as an interpreter of Chopin’s piano works. In performances, he sometimes introduced personal alterations and transcriptions in the style of Moriz Rosenthal. In 1878, he visited Franz Liszt in Weimar. Initially unwelcome due to his Leipzig Conservatory training, Michalowski ultimately impressed Liszt with his performance, earning praise for his stylistic authenticity and interpretive creativity.

Zbigniew Drzewiecki, one of Michalowski’s successors in Warsaw, wrote:

“As an interpreter of Chopin, he created a certain style of rendering the composer’s works which found many imitators. It consisted of the chiseling of swift passages and stressing their elegance in smoothing the edges of sharper expressive climaxes, in lending Chopin’s works the air of almost drawing-room sentimentality. And yet, this slight sentimentality was always under the strict control of moderation, instrumental purity, and good taste.”

Michalowski began teaching privately in 1874. In 1891, he became a professor of the concert pianists’ class at the Warsaw Institute of Music under the direction of Apollinaire de Kontski. He remained there until 1918, after which he taught at the Fryderyk Chopin Music School of the Warsaw Music Society. As a teacher, he placed particular emphasis on the importance of contrapuntal playing. During the first two years of his students’ work with him, Michalowski required them to study J.S. Bach’s contrapuntal keyboard works. For one of his students, Wanda Landowska, the emphasis on contrapuntal principles in Chopin’s and Bach’s music inspired her to focus her career on Bach and Baroque music. Michalowski also encouraged his students to develop the imaginative and bravura aspects of their playing. He often demonstrated his own technique and style during lessons, and encouraged students to imitate aspects of his performance.

The careers of some of his students were interrupted by the two World Wars, and in some cases ended their work. Among them was Jerzy Żurawlew, who founded the International Chopin Piano Competitions in 1927. Wanda Landowska was not only forced to flee the Nazis, but also had her musical collection confiscated. Róża Etkin-Moszkowska was killed in the German retreat from Warsaw in 1944.

Henryk Pachulski and Piotr Maszyński were among his earlier pupils, while later ones included Stanislaw Urstein, Edwarda Chojnacka, Wiktor Chapowicki, Józef Śmidowicz, Mischa Levitzki, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Jadwiga Sarnecka, and Bolesław Woytowicz. Heinrich Neuhaus, a teacher whose pupils included Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Yaacov Zak, and Ryszard Bakst, received lessons from Michalowski. Professor Karol Radziwonowicz also lists Stefania Allina, Zofia Buckiewiczowa, Janina Familier Hepner, Zofia Frankiewicz, Stefania Niekrasz, Stanislaw Nawrocki, Ludomir Różycki, Piotr Rytel, Henryk Schulz-Evler, Władysław Szpilman, Juliusz Wolfsohn, and Alexander Zakin as Michalowski’s pupils.

Bolesław Kon was a pupil who also studied with Konstantin Igumnov. Jerzy Lefeld became Michalowski’s amanuensis, transcribing for him.

Józef Turczyński, his immediate successor at Warsaw, and Zbigniew Drzewiecki were not his students but continued the tradition of his work as leading teachers of the Polish school.

Michalowski was also a chamber musician, performing duos with the violinist Stanisław Barcewicz and trios with Barcewicz and the cellist Aleksandr Verzhbilovich.

He composed 35 piano works, which are mostly shorter pieces, and produced an instructional edition of Chopin’s compositions.

He recorded extensively and made a large number of gramophone records, recorded in three different periods: the first around 1906, the second around 1918, and the last in the 1930s.

Although Michalowski was known as a concert performer, his focus shifted increasingly toward teaching after his sight began to fail rapidly in 1912. At the encouragement of his colleague, Madame Ruszczycówna, he later returned to the concert stage, giving numerous performances in the following years. In 1919, he marked the 50th anniversary of his debut with a series of concerts. In 1929, he performed both Chopin concerti in a single concert. Michalowski died in Warsaw on 17 October 1938, at the age of 87.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Chopin Berceuse in D-flat major, Op.57 Syrena 6578 21306 1930

Chopin Etude in E-flat major, Op.10 No.11 Gramophone 25636 16675b 1912-09-17to21 September 1912 Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin Etude in G-flat major, Op.10 No.5 G&T 25600 3582 L 1905-late Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin Funeral March (III) from Piano Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor, Op.35 Favorite 1-74575 1910 Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin Polonaise in A major, Op.40 No.1 G&T 25602 3584 L 1905-late Winter 1905[1906] Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin Prelude in A major, Op.28 No.7 G&T 25607 3608 L 1905-late Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin Prelude in C minor, Op.28 No.20 G&T 25607 3607 L 1905-late Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin Scherzo No.1 in B minor, Op.20 [abridged] Syrena 6579 21308, 21309 1930

Chopin Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op.64 No.2 1914 Date Unknown Location Unknown

Chopin Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op.64 No.2 G&T 25604 3587 L 1905-late Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op.64 No.2 Gramophone 25635 16674b September 1912 Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin/Liszt My Joys, Op.74 No.12 (S.480 No.5) G&T 25603 3586 L 1905-late Winter 1905 [1906] Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin/Michalowski Waltz in D-flat major, Op.64 No.1 (Minute Waltz) G&T 25601X 3583½ L 1905-late Winter 1905[1906] Warsaw, Russian Empire

Chopin/Michalowski Waltz in D-flat major, Op.64 No.1 (Minute Waltz) G&T 25601 3583 L 1905-late Winter 1905[1906] Warsaw, Russian Empire

Liszt Valse-Caprice No.6 in A minor after dances by Schubert, S.427 No.6 (from Soirées de Vienne) G&T 25606 3607 L Warsaw, Russian Empire

Mendelssohn Song Without Words in A major, Op.19 No.3 (Hunting Song) G&T 25605 3605 L 1905-late Warsaw, Russian Empire

Michalowski Paraphrase on Chopin’s Minute Waltz Columbia DMX 258 WJX 12 1934-02-01 Warsaw, Poland