Mieczyslaw Horszowski
Encyclopedia
Mieczysław Horszowski was a Polish
-American
pianist who had the longest known career in the history of the performing arts.
, (now Ukraine
) and was initially taught by his mother, a pupil of Karol Mikuli (himself a pupil of Frédéric Chopin
). He became a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna
at the age of seven; Leschetizky had studied with Beethoven
's pupil Carl Czerny
.
In 1901 he gave a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1
in Warsaw
and soon after toured Europe and the Americas as a child prodigy. In 1905 the young Horszowski played to Gabriel Fauré
and met Camille Saint-Saëns
in Nice
. In 1911 Horszowski put his performing career on hold in order to devote himself to literature, philosophy and art history in Paris
.
While Horszowski's family was of Jewish origin (which made him a fugitive from Europe in the 1930s), he was himself an early convert to Roman Catholicism, and a very devout one. As the French critic André Tubeuf has written, "Horszowski was both very Jewish and very Catholic, in both cases as only a Pole
could have been."
or Rubinstein
). Horszowski's performances were known for their natural, unforced quality, balancing intellect and emotion. He was frequently praised for his tonal quality, as was common for pupils of Leschetizky.
Having returned to the concert stage with the encouragement of Pablo Casals
, he settled in Milan
after the First World War
, remaining there until he emigrated to the United States during World War II
. Following the war, Horszowski frequently gave recitals with artists such as Casals, Alexander Schneider
, Joseph Szigeti
and the Budapest Quartet
. He often appeared at the Prades Festival and the Marlboro Festival
.
From 1940 Horszowski lived in the United States, first in New York City
, and later in Philadelphia. He became an American citizen in 1948. Horszowski performed with the NBC Symphony Orchestra
under Toscanini
, with whom he was friends, in 1943 and 1953. During the 1954-1955 season, Horszowski gave a memorable cycle of Beethoven's entire solo piano works in New York, and in 1960 of Mozart
's piano sonatas. His very diverse and extensive repertoire also embraced such composers as Honegger
, d'Indy
, Martinů
, Stravinsky
, Szymanowski
and Villa-Lobos
. In 1979, on a restored Cristofori
piano
forte, the pianist recorded several works of Lodovico Giustini
, which were commissioned by Cristofori and are the first known compositions written specifically for the pianoforte.
Horszowski twice performed at the White House
: with Casals and Schneider in 1961 for President Kennedy
and a solo performance in 1979 for President Carter
.
Horszowski was widely recorded, and can be heard on the HMV
, Columbia
, RCA
, Vanguard
, Nonesuch
, and other labels. He also taught at the Curtis Institute of Music
in Philadelphia, among his pupils Richard Goode
, Anton Kuerti
, Murray Perahia
, Peter Serkin
, Steven De Groote, Kathryn Selby
, Cecile Licad
, and Leslie Spotz
.
Horszowski's final performance took place in Philadelphia in October 1991. He died in that city one month before his 101st birthday. He had given his final lesson the week prior to his death.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pianist who had the longest known career in the history of the performing arts.
Early life
Horszowski was born in Lwów (Lemberg), Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, (now Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) and was initially taught by his mother, a pupil of Karol Mikuli (himself a pupil of Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
). He became a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
at the age of seven; Leschetizky had studied with Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's pupil Carl Czerny
Carl Czerny
Carl Czerny was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. He is best remembered today for his books of études for the piano. Czerny's music was profoundly influenced by his teachers, Muzio Clementi, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri and Ludwig van Beethoven.-Early life:Carl Czerny was born...
.
In 1901 he gave a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, op. 15, was written during 1796 and 1797. The first performance was in Prague in 1798, with Beethoven himself playing the piano, dedicated to his student Babette Countess Keglevics....
in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
and soon after toured Europe and the Americas as a child prodigy. In 1905 the young Horszowski played to Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
and met Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
. In 1911 Horszowski put his performing career on hold in order to devote himself to literature, philosophy and art history in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
While Horszowski's family was of Jewish origin (which made him a fugitive from Europe in the 1930s), he was himself an early convert to Roman Catholicism, and a very devout one. As the French critic André Tubeuf has written, "Horszowski was both very Jewish and very Catholic, in both cases as only a Pole
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
could have been."
Career
Horszowski, who was barely five feet tall, had rather small hands. Thus, he avoided much of the virtuoso repertoire (one possible reason he never attained the "superstar" status of HorowitzVladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
or Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
). Horszowski's performances were known for their natural, unforced quality, balancing intellect and emotion. He was frequently praised for his tonal quality, as was common for pupils of Leschetizky.
Having returned to the concert stage with the encouragement of Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...
, he settled in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
after the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, remaining there until he emigrated to the United States during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Following the war, Horszowski frequently gave recitals with artists such as Casals, Alexander Schneider
Alexander Schneider
Alexander Schneider was a violinist, conductor, and educator. Born in Vilna, Lithuania, he later moved to the United States as a member of the Budapest Quartet.- Biography :...
, Joseph Szigeti
Joseph Szigeti
Joseph Szigeti was a Hungarian violinist.Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on the violin, and moved to Budapest with his father to study with the renowned pedagogue Jenő Hubay...
and the Budapest Quartet
Budapest Quartet
The Budapest String Quartet was a string quartet in existence from 1917 to 1967. It originally consisted of three Hungarians and a Dutchman; at the end, the quartet consisted of four Russians. A number of recordings were made for HMV/Victor through 1938; from 1940 through 1967 it recorded for...
. He often appeared at the Prades Festival and the Marlboro Festival
Marlboro Music School and Festival
The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlboro, Vermont...
.
From 1940 Horszowski lived in the United States, first in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and later in Philadelphia. He became an American citizen in 1948. Horszowski performed with the NBC Symphony Orchestra
NBC Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini...
under Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, with whom he was friends, in 1943 and 1953. During the 1954-1955 season, Horszowski gave a memorable cycle of Beethoven's entire solo piano works in New York, and in 1960 of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's piano sonatas. His very diverse and extensive repertoire also embraced such composers as Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
, d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
, Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
, Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, Szymanowski
Karol Szymanowski
Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...
and Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
. In 1979, on a restored Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco was an Italian maker of musical instruments, generally regarded as the inventor of the piano.-Life:...
piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
forte, the pianist recorded several works of Lodovico Giustini
Lodovico Giustini
Lodovico Giustini was an Italian composer and keyboard player of the late Baroque and early Classical eras. He was the first known composer ever to write music for the piano.-Life:...
, which were commissioned by Cristofori and are the first known compositions written specifically for the pianoforte.
Horszowski twice performed at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
: with Casals and Schneider in 1961 for President Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and a solo performance in 1979 for President Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
.
Horszowski was widely recorded, and can be heard on the HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
, Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, RCA
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
, Vanguard
Vanguard Records
Vanguard Records is a record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York. It started as a classical label, but is perhaps best known for its catalogue of recordings by a number of pivotal folk and blues artists from the 1960s; the Bach Guild was a subsidiary...
, Nonesuch
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
, and other labels. He also taught at the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
in Philadelphia, among his pupils Richard Goode
Richard Goode
Richard Goode is an American classical pianist, especially known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven and chamber music.Goode was born in East Bronx, New York...
, Anton Kuerti
Anton Kuerti
Anton Kuerti, OC is an Austrian-born Canadian pianist, music teacher, composer, and conductor. Since his performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra at age 11, he has developed international recognition as a solo pianist, particularly focusing on the works of Beethoven...
, Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia KBE is an American concert pianist and conductor.-Early life:Murray Perahia was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to a family of Sephardi Jewish origin. According to the biography on his Mozart piano sonatas CD, his first language was Judaeo-Spanish or, Ladino. The family...
, Peter Serkin
Peter Serkin
-Biography:He was born in New York City and is the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene had married Rudolf Serkin...
, Steven De Groote, Kathryn Selby
Kathryn Selby
Kathryn Selby is an Australian classical pianist. She is often known as Kathy Selby.She grew up in Sydney. She entered the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the age of seven. She followed this with study with Béla Síki at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1976 she was awarded a...
, Cecile Licad
Cecile Licad
Cecile Licad is a renowned Filipina virtuoso classical pianist dubbed as a "a pianist's pianist" by The New Yorker, "her artistry, a blend of daring musical instinct and superb training." -Biography:...
, and Leslie Spotz
Leslie Spotz
Leslie Spotz is an American pianist.-Biography:Spotz studied, as a full-scholarship recipient, at the Curtis Institute of Music with Mieczysław Horszowski, who was associated with Pablo Casals.She completed her doctorate at Rutgers University in 2002....
.
Later life and death
In 1981, the 89-year-old Horszowski married Bice Costa, an Italian pianist. Bice later edited Horszowski's memoirs and a volume of his mother's correspondence about Horszowski's early years. She also discovered and recorded some songs composed by Horszowski on French texts ca. 1913-1914.Horszowski's final performance took place in Philadelphia in October 1991. He died in that city one month before his 101st birthday. He had given his final lesson the week prior to his death.
External links
- [ Mieczysław Horszowski biography] at AllMusic
- Mieczysław Horszowski biography at Naxos RecordsNaxos RecordsNaxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
- Mieczyslaw Horszowski Solo Repertoire
- Article on Horszowski by pupil Darrell Rosenbluth