Maria Szymanowska (nee Wołowska) was born on December 14, 1789 in Warsaw, Poland. She became one of the first professional virtuoso pianists of the 19th century as well as a popular composer for piano in the years before her countryman, Chopin. Szymanowskas work was greatly admired by Cherubini and Goethe. The former dedicated his Fantasia in C-minor to her and the latter his Aussohnung verses. Szymanowska performed throughout Europe and was given the title of First Pianist to the Russian court after she settled in St Petersburg. She married Józef Szymanowski, in 1810 (interestingly, the year she started publicly performing) and her three children remained with her after her divorce from Szymanowski in 1820.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 16:00:00 +0000
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