Maria Szymanowska (1789–1831) was an intriguing and remarkable figure. She was one of the first pianists to achieve international recognition in the 19th century, and the first Polish female artist to enjoy widespread fame and esteem.
She received her musical education in Warsaw from private tutors. It was also in her parents’ Warsaw salon that the gifted pianist gave her first performances.
In keeping with the conventions of the time, she married at the age of 21. The marriage, which produced three children, ended after several years in crisis and divorce.
Only then, at the beginning of the 1820s, did she start to build her international career as a pianist, while also becoming known as a composer of published and popular piano miniatures and songs. Performing throughout Europe, she met many of the leading figures of the age. The great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was captivated by her and dedicated his poem Aussöhnung (Reconciliation) to her; Luigi Cherubini and Gioachino Rossini were among those who admired her playing.
She spent the final years of her life in St Petersburg, where, as a court pianist, she hosted a celebrated cosmopolitan salon. Her succession of artistic achievements was cut short by her premature death during a cholera epidemic.
One of Szymanowska’s most significant achievements as a composer is the collection Vingt exercices et préludes (Twenty Studies and Preludes), published in 1819. As well as their artistic qualities, the miniatures in the collection give us an insight into the strengths of Szymanowska’s own pianistic technique. The young Fryderyk Chopin admired her playing at her Warsaw concert in 1827 and was probably also familiar with her compositions. Professor Mieczysław Tomaszewski observed that Szymanowska’s music, in terms of the genres she cultivated and some of its textural solutions, may have provided Chopin with a point of departure for his own compositional explorations.
