Wladislaw Klosiewicz, harpsichord, Oct 7, 2018

Yale Collection of Musical Instruments presents

WŁADYSŁAW KŁOSIEWICZ

LANDOWSKA IN MEMORIAM

15 Hillhouse Avenue New Haven 7 October 2018 3:00 p.m.

harpsichordist and conductor WładysłaW KłosieWicz studied at the Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland, and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He was the last student of Ruggero Gerlin (18991983), who was an assistant to and close collaborator of Wanda Landowska.

Klosiewicz is the winner of international harpsichord competitions in Paris (1981), Paris-Dijon (1983), and Munich (1984), where at the ARD competition he received 1st Prize without 2nd and 3rd Prizes being awarded.

Since 1978, he has performed in most European countries to enthusiastic reviews, collaborating with numerous outstanding soloists, ensembles, and musicologists who specialize in music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. In his native Poland, he has played with the Polish Chamber Orchestra of Jerzy Maksymiuk as well as the Sinfonia Varsovia. In 1984, he co-founded the Concerto Avenna orchestra, serving as artistic director and manager of the group during its first year of existence.

From 1993-2017 Kłosiewicz was affiliated with the Warsaw Chamber Opera, during which time he was the conductor of the Baroque Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense Early Music Orchestra. He compiled, edited and oversaw the first Polish stage performances of Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, and L’Incoronazione di Poppea, as well as his Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers of the Blessed Virgin). From 1987-2004 he was Professor of Harpsichord and the Interpretation of Pre-Classical Music at the Universität für Musik and Darstellende Kunst in Graz, Austria. He currently lectures at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Kłosiewicz’s solo phonographic work includes the complete harpsichord works of J.-P. Rameau; the partitas of J.S. Bach; the Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach (which received the Fryderyk award in 2000); the compositions of J.J. Froberger; the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti; and the entirety of François Couperin’s oeuvre (13 CDs, which garnered Fryderyk and Clef d’Or awards in 2014.

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Yale Collection of Musical Instruments

15 Hillhouse Avenue New Haven

7 October 2018 3:00pm

WŁADYSŁAW KŁOSIEWICZ

harpsichord Louis Couperin

Pavane

Johann Jakob Froberger

Méditation, faite sur ma mort future, la quelle se joue lentement avec discrétion (in memory of Richard Rephann)

(1626-1661) (1616-1667)

Toccata X Lamentation faite sur la mort très douloureuse de Sa Majesté Imperiale Ferdinand III, et se joue lentement avec discrétion Claude Benigne Balbastre

La Lugeac La d’Héricourt La Castelmore

François Couperin

Cinquième Ordre La Logivière - Allemande Courante La Dangereuse - Sarabande La Tendre Fanchon

(1724-1799)

(1668-1733)

Harpsichord by François Etienne Blanchet the Elder, Paris, c. 1740 INTERVAL

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)

Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828 Ouverture Allemande Courante Aria Sarabande Menuet Gigue

Harpsichord by Johann Adolph Hass, Hamburg, c. 1760 This concert is being underwritten in part by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Born in Warsaw in 1879, Wanda LandoWska studied piano at the Warsaw Conservatory, from which she graduated at age 14. In 1900, she moved to Paris, where she taught piano and performed. In both cities, she devoted herself to learning the harpsichord, an instrument which had all but disappeared from the active classical repertoire. Although Bach, Handel, and others had composed myriad harpsichord pieces, by 1900, virtually no one played the instrument and works written for it were generally transposed for piano.

But Landowska was determined to play these works on the original instrument, despite discouragement from musicologists and fellow musicians.

In 1912, Landowska commissioned a harpsichord to be built for her own use; she later transported the instrument all over Europe for her numerous performances. She began to teach harpsichord in Paris and, after a stint in Berlin, opened her own school outside Paris in 1919. Already renowned as a teacher and performer, she made her U.S. debut in 1923, with the Philadelphia Orchestra. After her first New York recital the following year, she found a large following in the U.S. and played often to packed houses. In 1941, forced to flee Nazi-occupied Paris, Landowska and her life partner, Denise Restout, were eventually able to make their way to the United States where they settled permanently.

The following year, on February 21, 1942, Landowska made history with a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations at New York's Town Hall. It was the first time in the 20th century that the piece, originally written for the harpsichord, was performed publicly on that instrument. It is now a staple of the repertoire. A Landowska student later remembered that hearing that first performance was "like being in front of one of the greatest wonders of nature." Landowska made a similar splash in 1948 with a performance of Bach's complete "Well-Tempered Clavier." Her mastery of the harpsichord inspired not only listeners and students, but also composers, several of whom wrote new harpsichord works especially for her.

In addition to playing and teaching, Landowska also wrote about music. A 1909 book, written with her husband (Henry Lew, who died in 1919), and first published in French, addressed "music of the past." During her years in the U.S., she published frequent essays and book reviews. After her death, some of this material, along with previously unpublished essays, was published as Landowska on Music (1964). In the volume's essays, Landowska wrote about the interpretation of Bach and other music. She also made a passionate case for the role of the individual performer as an interpreter. At a time when many musicians believed that a performer should simply reproduce the notes on the page as closely as possible, Landowska wrote that the performer should, instead, add her own style, combining intuition and knowledge to produce an "ecstasy of music."

Landowska was frequently honored for her work. She received citations from the Charles Cros Academy in France and from the U.S. National Federation of Music Clubs, both recognizing her recordings. France admitted her to the Legion of Honor in 1925, and awarded her the Grand Prix of the Paris Exposition in 1937. Landowska gave her last public performance in 1954. She died in Connecticut in 1959.

Source: Jewish Women’s Archive, “Early music harpsichordist Wanda Landowska plays Bach at New York City’s Town Hall February 21, 1942,” https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/21/1942/wanda-landowska (accessed 05 October 2018) Cover Photo: Wanda Landowska in Concert, Ukraine 1937