„Maria Szymanowska – Virtuosin und Pionierin der Goethezeit“ Ein literarisch-musikalischer Abend über das Leben und Werk der ersten europäischen Klavier-Ikone

A literary and musical evening featuring:

Introduction and moderation: Prof. Tobias Koch, pianist, university professor, Robert Schumann University of Music, Düsseldorf

Reading: Julia Dillmann

At the piano: Kateryna Shapran

She was one of the first women in Europe to conquer international concert stages as a freelance artist: the Polish composer and pianistMaria Szymanowska(1789–1831). As a single mother, she broke with social conventions, traveled from London to St. Petersburg as a celebrated virtuoso, and left behind an impressive body of compositional work. With her visionary nocturnes (such as the famous “Le Murmure”), her technically brilliant concert études, and her style-defining dances such as mazurkas and polonaises, she created a new, emotional style of piano playing that had a decisive influence on the style of the young Frédéric Chopin. Even Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was so captivated by her modern, powerful playing in Marienbad in the summer of 1823 that he reverently hailed her as the “goddess of sound” and a “female volcano.”

On the occasion of the current exhibition “Out of the Shadows: Katharina Kippenberg and Women of Goethe’s Time” at the Goethe Museum in Düsseldorf, this evening shines a spotlight on the fascinating life and musical legacy of this musical visionary—as reflected in her letters, contemporary sources, and excerpts from Danuta Gwizdalanka’s biography “The Female Vulcan: The Pianist and Composer Maria Szymanowska.”

A collaboration between the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf and the Goethe Museum in Düsseldorf.