“Historical Anthology of Music by Women”
Maria Agata Szymanowska, a contemporary of Beethoven and Schubert, was the first Polish pianist of stature. Her playing won the title “Royal Pianist of the Court of Russia” and the admiration of both Liszt and Chopin in their younger years. Her many piano compositions, published during her lifetime, are significant in the history of Polish music before Chopin.
The daughter of Barbara Lanckoronska and middle-class merchant Franciscek Wolowski, Maria exhibited a precocious talent. With only scant keyboard instruction, the young girl seated at the spinet would entertain family guests with improvisations on her own themes. Between 1789 and 1802, the obscure composers Antoni Lisowski and Tomasz Gremm taught her piano; and Josef Eisner, Franciszek Lessel, John Field, and Johann Nepomuk Hummel occasionally provided her with advice about performance or prompted revisions of her compositions. Otherwise, it appears that Maria was largely self taught.
In 1810, the young pianist made her debut in Warsaw. In the same year she married a wealthy landowner, Josef Szymanowski. By 1815, she was in great demand for public concerts, but her frequent appearances were offensive to her husband. His continued disapproval caused Maria to separate from him in 1820 and take her three children with her. She earned her living through concerts and lectures on piano technique. With many performances behind her and some of her works published, she began regular appearances throughout both eastern and western Europe, returning intermittently to her beloved Warsaw.
During her successful concert career from 1810 to 1828, Szymanowska included many of her own works in her programs. She wrote more than no compositions: vocal music, chamber music, and a large body of piano music. In an era when society placed little value on compositions by women, it is remarkable that Szymanowska’s works found immediate publication—by Breitkopf and Hartel in Leipzig and by publishers in Paris, Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa.
Szymanowska’s piano compositions, consisting of nearly 90 miniatures, display the composer’s versatility. They include nocturnes, waltzes, polonaises, minuets, marches, mazurkas, and concert etudes. Her two nocturnes exemplify early pianistic poetry. The first, “Le Murmure,” in A-flat major, became one of her most popular compositions. Her second nocturne, in B-flat major, is reproduced here. It exhibits marked growth from the simple, straightforward style of Szymanowska’s earlier works, with more-imaginative writing and an increase in personal expression.
The second nocturne opens with a gentle barcarolle accompaniment supporting an embellished vocal line. The tempo is slower and the idiom more reflective than in the first nocturne. Szymanowska contrasts the opening cantilena with a darker section in the parallel minor, then moves to a passage of a nationalistic character. She reinforces a reprise by a registration in octaves and closes with an extended coda.
Because the Nocturne in B flat was published (posthumously) in 1852 and differs in style from many of Szymanowska’s works, doubts have been expressed about its authenticity. However, there is a plausible explanation: Between the years 1828 and 1831, when the Nocturne was composed, Szymanowska had more time to devote to personal activities. Until then, responsibility for her children, the demands of an active social life, and the exigencies of a professional career demanded most of her attention. But in her permanent home in St. Petersburg, she was free to pursue some long-delayed projects. One of these activities was collecting her compositions and copying them into one album. It is possible that for the first time she had sufficient leisure to compose a more-sophisticated piece.
On the afternoon of July 23, 1831, Maria Agata Szymanowska suddenly fell ill with cholera. She died the following morning and was buried in what is now Leningrad.
Recordings (of Nocturne in B-flat major)
Regina Smendzianaka, pianist. Muza XL0355.
Nancy Fierro, pianist. Avant 1012.
Rosario Marciano, pianist. Turnabout TV 34685.
Further Reading
Davies, Joan. “Maria Szymanowska,” The Consort 23 (1966):167-74.
Nowak-Romanowicz, Alina. “Szymanowska, Maria,” The New Grove 18:499.
Swaryczewska, Katarzyna. “Szymanowska, Maria,” Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart XIII (1966):31-32,.
Published by Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne, n.d. Reprinted by permission.
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