Landowska, Wanda. (1879–1959) [Sinigaglia, Leone. (1868–1944)]
Signed Postcard Photograph
Signed halftone postcard photograph of 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. She is shown playing her double-manual Pleyel harpsichord, and has inscribed the card to the Italian composer Leone Sinigaglia "en vielle amitié" and dated Good Friday [April 14] 1922. Postcard issued by G. Astruc & co. Light toning and soiling to verso, inscription slightly faded but legible; overall in very good condition. 3.5 x 5.5 inches (14 x 9 cm).The important pianist and harpsichordist Wanda Landowska was born in Warsaw and studied in Poland, Berlin, and Paris. After teaching piano at the Schola Cantorum of Paris, she became the harpsichord professor at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Deeply interested in musicology, and particularly in the works of Bach, Couperin and Rameau, she toured the museums of Europe looking at original keyboard instruments; she acquired old instruments and had new ones made at her request by Pleyel and Company. These were large, heavily built harpsichords with a 16-foot stop (a set of strings an octave below normal pitch) and owed much to piano construction.
Leone Sinigaglia studied at the conservatory of Turin with Giovanni Bolzoni before moving to Vienna in 1894. There he studied with Mandyczewski and also had a close association with Johannes Brahms. He also spent time in several other European cities, and worked from 1900 on in Prague with Antonin Dvorak. An accomplished mountain climber as well as a composer, he was the first to scale several peaks of the Dolomites. (14668)
Signed Photograph Classical Music