This year’s 200th anniversary of the birth of Ignacy Krzyżanowski provides an excellent opportunity to rediscover this now almost forgotten pianist, teacher and composer associated with Warsaw.
He was born in Opatów in 1826 and grew up in Kraków, where he studied counterpoint and harmony with Franciszek Mirecki. On the advice of Franz Liszt, he later studied at the Paris Conservatoire. There he also met Chopin, who most probably gave him several piano lessons and spoke favourably of his first attempts at composition. An eye condition brought an end to the concert career he had successfully pursued from the age of 14. From 1850 he settled permanently in Warsaw, where he gained considerable recognition as a piano teacher. He was one of the co-founders of the Warsaw Music Society, established in 1871. He died in 1905.
As a composer, Ignacy Krzyżanowski concentrated on music for the piano. His works, predominantly instrumental miniatures, attracted considerable interest in the 19th century, and Jan Kleczyński even regarded him as a worthy follower of Chopin’s style. Among the most significant works in Krzyżanowski’s legacy is the Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 45, published in 1882. This three-movement work draws on Chopin’s style, most notably in its pianistic textures, but also on the Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 35, as suggested by its shared key and an introduction marked Grave, at the same tempo as Chopin’s.
Piotr Pawlak, an audience favourite at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, will perform Fryderyk Chopin’s Sonata in B flat minor and Julian Krzyżanowski’s Sonata in B flat minor, opening the recital with the Prelude and Fugue in B flat minor from Book II of Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier.
