Healing Music Enterprises Blog » Wanda Landowska and Harpsichord

Wanda Landowksa 50th Anniversary

Dr. Alice Cash — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:31:40 +0000

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!

Are you a fan of Wanda Landowska?

Dr. Alice Cash — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:37:20 +0000

Are you a fan of the harpsichord? If you are then you probably have heard of Wanda Landowska, famous Polish harpsichordist who almost single-handedly revived the harpsichord after it had fallen into oblivion after the piano was invented in 1710. I’ve been a fan of the harpsichord since I first heard one back in the 60′s. In the 1980′s when I was working on my Ph.D., I decided to do my dissertation on “Wanda Landowska and the Revival of the Harpsichord.” I was fortunate enough to get a grant from Sallie Bingham’s Kentucky Foundation for women that allowed me to go to Paris for 6 weeks and do research at the Bibliotheque Nationale! There I found almost everything I needed for my
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MP3 – Music for Surgery

dissertation. The rest of the information was in the hands of Landowska’s lifelong student and companion, Denise Restout.

For 20 years I’ve been waiting to see Landowska’s annotated scores to the Well-Tempered Klavier and to the Goldberg Variations, as well as her teen-age diaries and photographs from her more private life!
Last week I finally got a chance to view these documents at the Library of Congress where they now reside. Soon I will publish my own biography of Landowska from a view-point never before known or seen. I’ll also be speaking in several locations on this topic. If you’re interested either in having a copy of my dissertation or in having me speak for YOUR association or organization, please contact me at chantdoc@healingmusicenterprises.com.

Medical Problems of a famous harpsichordist

Dr. Alice Cash — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:15:40 +0000

Today at the Library of Congress I spent quite a bit of time ready the teenage diaries of Wanda Landowska. Around age 15, she developed a serious ganglion in her right wrist and had to have years of treatments for it, including a couple of surgeries. She was devastated by this and was worried sick that it would keep her from becoming a pianist (which, originally she wanted to be.) As a result, she actually majored in composition at the Hochschule in Berlin! Today I saw dozens of her compositions as well as lots of medical information.

Ganglions are still a serious occupational hazard of pianists!

Wanda Landowska and the Revival of the Harpsichord

Dr. Alice Cash — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:03:30 +0000

Chantdoc goes to Washington, D.C.

I’m in the middle of a very exciting adventure in Washington, D.C. The official reason is to do research at the Library of Congress on Wanda Landowska and the Revival of the Harpsichord. Wanda was the topic of my Ph.D. dissertation back in 1990 and at that time I was aware that a lot more material existed on this topic.

In 2004, Landowska’s lifelong companion died and finally in 2008, 110 boxes of archival materials about Wanda arrived at the Library of Congress. Today I was there for 8 hours and only got through two of them! Tomorrow I’ll go back and hope to get through at least two more. If there is something in particular you’d like for me to take a peek at, please let me know ASAP.

The pictures are from some tourist activites I did yesterday with my daughter and son-in-law. You’ll recognize the Lincoln Memorial in the background.