Description

MARIE GABRIELLE LESCHETIZKY (VON ROZBORSKA [ROSBORSKA) (PRZEMYŚL/GALIZIEN, 20. 3. 1880 – PARIS, 30. 5. 1954)

 

 

 

 

Presumably orphaned at a young age (her grandmother was a sister of the pianist, composer, and confidant of Frédéric Chopin, Julian Fontana), she is documented as a summer guest with her uncle’s family in Bad Ischl in 1897. By 1903 she was already performing as a pianist at an aristocratic Viennese charity concert. Soon thereafter she became a student of Th. L.; by 1906 she was already his assistant, and in 1908 she became his fourth wife (in Budapest).

Her first major public concert appearance took place in Salzburg in 1907. Three years later she again appeared there during the Mozart celebrations (Salzburg Festival), participating in an orchestral concert on August 6 with the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Muck. Subsequently, she gave concerts—including piano recitals, chamber music, and orchestral performances—in Salzburg (1911, 1913), Celje (Slovenia, 1911), London (1908?, 1911), Vienna (1911/12, Bösendorfer Hall; 1914, Konzerthaus under Otto Nedbal), Amsterdam (1913), Prague (1911, 1913), and various German cities (1913/14, 1916).

At the end of 1917 she moved to Berlin, where she continued to concertize and to work as a piano teacher. In 1924 she undertook a concert tour of the United States. From around 1926 she lived in Paris.

She was praised for her impeccable technique, but critics also remarked on her “nervous temperament” (Neues Wiener Tagblatt, December 11, 1911, p. 1), a perceived lack of “invigorating spirit and expressive energy” (Wiener Abendpost, December 14, 1911, p. 4), and frequently on the idiosyncratic nature of her interpretations. Alongside Mozart and Beethoven, she particularly favored the works of Brahms and Chopin.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

6426 AMPICO DELIBES – Passepied from “Le Roi s’amuse” (King Amuses Himself)

51531 TRIPHONOLA BRAHMS – Capriccio, Op. 76, No. 1 f#

52599 TRIPHONOLA LESCHETIZKY – Scherzo, Op. 47, No. 2