Healing Music Enterprises Blog

Celebrating the career of Wanda Landowska

This year is the 50th anniversary of the death of Wanda Landowska, the famous Polish harpsichordist. Wanda eloped to Paris in 1899 with Henri Lew, a polish enthnologist whom she had met in Berlin where she was in college, studying piano and composition.Because of a severe ganglion in her left wrist, she feared that she could never be a pianist, but when she discovered the harpisihord, she discovered an instrument that she could play successfully and her wrists finally healed for good.

The story of Wanda Landowska is the fascinating story of a determined woman who desperately wanted to be famous as a teenager in Warsaw. I was so impressed and inspired by her that I did my Ph.D. dissertation on her and her work. I was extremely fortunate to get to go to Paris for six weeks in the summer of 1987 to research Landowsk’a career. There at the Bibliotheque Nationale I found everything I needed for my dissertation, including concert reviews in at least 8 or 9 different languages.

Since that time, my dissertation has been turned into an award-winning documentary entitled “UncommonVisionary.” You can purchase this film here. You can also buy many of her CD’s that have been re-mastered from the original RCA 78 LP’s. Check out the Landowska CD’s here. Landowksa was one of the great Romantic artists of te 20th century. I hope you’ll get to know her work!