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[Bach, J.S. (1685–1750)] Landowska, Wanda. (1879–1959). " The Goldberg [Variations] will at last be released; the recording is great" - Typed Letter with Autograph Postscript.
Typed letter by the pioneering Polish-born harpsichordist and pianist with four autograph lines in crayon and signed in full to "Monsieur et Madame Barbès," influential music lovers in the city of Algiers, then under French rule. December 24, 1933. In French. 2 pp., quarto. Letterhead paper of "Ecole Wanda Landowska" in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, signed "Wanda Landowska." Together with original envelope. Folds, in very fine condition.
In part, from the French: "Do you doubt, dear friends, the place you have occupied in my heart since the day when I made your closer acquaintance? Since I left you, I have not stopped thinking about Algiers, about the two of you [...] In an hour, I will play a great concert[o] by Bach with orchestra and pieces by Couperin. [...] The Goldberg [Variations] will at last be released; the recording is great. I would be happy to learn about your impressions. The letter from Algiers by my friend Barbès made me promise to write for Le menestrel (and maybe also for Le monde musical) [and] would, I believe, also be welcomed by La revue musicale. What surprised me most and attached me to my listeners in Algiers was their great sensitivity and their miraculous facility at assimilation. The most telling proof of that was how they received the Goldberg Variations. [...] [autograph postscript:] ...Happy New Year, my dear, charming friends! I think of our Arabian rhapsody."
« Vous doutez-vous, chers amis, de la place que vous occupez dans mon coeur depuis le jour où je vous ai connus de plus près? En vous quittant, je n'ai pas cessé de penser à Alger, à vous deux [...] Je jouerai dans une heure au Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt un magnifique concert de Bach avec orchestre et des pièces de Couperin. [...] Les Goldberg viennent enfin de paraître, l'enregistrement est magnifique. Je serais heureuse de connaître vos impressions. Le lettre d'Alger de mon ami Barbès a bien voulu me promettre d'écrire pour le Menestrel (et peutêtre pour le monde Musical) serait, je crois, tout aussi bien reçue à la Revue Musicale. Ce qui m'a le plus frappé et attaché à mes auditeurs de Alger, c'est leur grande sensibilité et leur prodigieuse faculté d'assimilation. La plus éloquente preuve en a été la façon dont ils ont reçu les Variations Goldberg. [...] Je pense à notre Rhapsodie arabe (de sa main)»
A remarkable letter from the Polish-French harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings, and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century and who was, shortly before the present letter was penned, the first to record Bach's Goldberg Variations.
The eminent Polish keyboardist Wanda Landowska has been called many things over the past century: visionary, diva, virtuoso, Mamusia. Her story is extraordinary, a self-made legend who mined the rich past of early Western keyboard music to forge her future as an authentic performer and renowned scholar of these musical traditions. Founded in 1925, Landowska’s Ecole de Musique Ancienne in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt was the epicenter for studies of the harpsichord and featured a beautiful concert hall in which Landowska performed many of the greatest works composed for the instrument, most notably J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations in May, 1933. Six months later, in Paris, she became the first to record them. The masterpiece had not been recorded before and had slumbered for nearly 200 years, known only to musical scholars. In the early years of this century Landowska was not alone in her attempts to rehabilitate the harpsichord, but it was she who re-established it with the public, together with the riches of its repertory and it was she more than anyone who brought the Goldberg Variations back to life.
[Bach, J.S. (1685–1750)] Landowska, Wanda. (1879–1959). " The Goldberg [Variations] will at last be released; the recording is great" - Typed Letter with Autograph Postscript.
Typed letter by the pioneering Polish-born harpsichordist and pianist with four autograph lines in crayon and signed in full to "Monsieur et Madame Barbès," influential music lovers in the city of Algiers, then under French rule. December 24, 1933. In French. 2 pp., quarto. Letterhead paper of "Ecole Wanda Landowska" in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, signed "Wanda Landowska." Together with original envelope. Folds, in very fine condition.
In part, from the French: "Do you doubt, dear friends, the place you have occupied in my heart since the day when I made your closer acquaintance? Since I left you, I have not stopped thinking about Algiers, about the two of you [...] In an hour, I will play a great concert[o] by Bach with orchestra and pieces by Couperin. [...] The Goldberg [Variations] will at last be released; the recording is great. I would be happy to learn about your impressions. The letter from Algiers by my friend Barbès made me promise to write for Le menestrel (and maybe also for Le monde musical) [and] would, I believe, also be welcomed by La revue musicale. What surprised me most and attached me to my listeners in Algiers was their great sensitivity and their miraculous facility at assimilation. The most telling proof of that was how they received the Goldberg Variations. [...] [autograph postscript:] ...Happy New Year, my dear, charming friends! I think of our Arabian rhapsody."
« Vous doutez-vous, chers amis, de la place que vous occupez dans mon coeur depuis le jour où je vous ai connus de plus près? En vous quittant, je n'ai pas cessé de penser à Alger, à vous deux [...] Je jouerai dans une heure au Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt un magnifique concert de Bach avec orchestre et des pièces de Couperin. [...] Les Goldberg viennent enfin de paraître, l'enregistrement est magnifique. Je serais heureuse de connaître vos impressions. Le lettre d'Alger de mon ami Barbès a bien voulu me promettre d'écrire pour le Menestrel (et peutêtre pour le monde Musical) serait, je crois, tout aussi bien reçue à la Revue Musicale. Ce qui m'a le plus frappé et attaché à mes auditeurs de Alger, c'est leur grande sensibilité et leur prodigieuse faculté d'assimilation. La plus éloquente preuve en a été la façon dont ils ont reçu les Variations Goldberg. [...] Je pense à notre Rhapsodie arabe (de sa main)»
A remarkable letter from the Polish-French harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings, and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century and who was, shortly before the present letter was penned, the first to record Bach's Goldberg Variations.
The eminent Polish keyboardist Wanda Landowska has been called many things over the past century: visionary, diva, virtuoso, Mamusia. Her story is extraordinary, a self-made legend who mined the rich past of early Western keyboard music to forge her future as an authentic performer and renowned scholar of these musical traditions. Founded in 1925, Landowska’s Ecole de Musique Ancienne in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt was the epicenter for studies of the harpsichord and featured a beautiful concert hall in which Landowska performed many of the greatest works composed for the instrument, most notably J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations in May, 1933. Six months later, in Paris, she became the first to record them. The masterpiece had not been recorded before and had slumbered for nearly 200 years, known only to musical scholars. In the early years of this century Landowska was not alone in her attempts to rehabilitate the harpsichord, but it was she who re-established it with the public, together with the riches of its repertory and it was she more than anyone who brought the Goldberg Variations back to life.