Teodor Leschetizkywas a Polish pianist, pedagogue, and composer. He was one of the most distinguished musical personalities of the Victorian era who taught over one thousand pianists, including Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Henryk Melcer, Ignacy Friedman, Artur Schnabel, Mieczysław Horszowski, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Ossip Gabrilowitch, Annette Essipoff, Alexander Brailowsky, Elly Ney, and Paul Wittgenstein. “If I became a pianist, I owe it to him,” Paderewski wrote well after he became Leschetizky’s pupil in Vienna at the age of 24. Even today, the leading twentieth century pianists are successors of the Leschetizky school. They include Sviatoslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Sergei Prokofiev, Van Cliburn, Garrick Ohlsson, Josef and Rosina Lhévinne, as well as John Cage.
Leschetizky was born at the Potocki’s Palace in Łańcut, Poland, on 22 June 1830. He began studying piano when he was five with his father and made his debut in Lwów playing Czerny’s Concertino in C major under the direction of Mozart’s son, Franz Xavier. Since 1841 Leschetizky studied piano in Vienna with Carl Czerny, a friend of Beethoven and one of the most outstanding piano teachers. Franz Liszt, who also studied with Czerny, became a close friend of Leschetizky. In addition Leschetizky studied composition with Anton Bruckner’s teacher, Simon Sechter, as well as philosophy at Vienna University.
In 1852 Leschetizky moved to St. Petersburg where he lived for the next twenty-six years. He concertized throughout Russia, Italy, Germany, England, and Finland, where he was enthusiastically greeted, and also appeared as a conductor. As a chamber musician, he accompanied the most illustrious nineteenth-century artists, including violinists Josef Joachim, Eugène Ysaÿe, Leopold Auer, Pablo Sarasate, and Henryk Wieniawski. Together with Anton Rubinstein, Leschetizky established the Conservatory in St. Petersburg in 1862, where he headed the piano department. Among his students at that time was Annette Essipoff, who later became a prominent pianist and Leschetizky’s wife. In 1878 Leschetizky settled in Vienna, devoting his time to private teaching and composing. His last concert was in Frankfurt am Main in 1887. He died in Dresden on 17 September 1915. Leschetizky’s catalogue of compositions includes works for solo piano, songs, a Piano Concerto, and two operas. During his lifetime, his compositions enjoyed widespread popularity but today they remain almost completely forgotten.
Ballade Venitienne opens Souvenirs d’Italie Op. 39, a piano suite written after Leschetizky’s sojourn in Italy. Its main theme depicts a conversation between two lovers aboard a gondola. The culminating moment in the center section features fast progressions of thirds accompanied by Wagnerian-style chords in the left hand. A dramatic link leads to a lyrical coda that musically recalls Leschetizky’s youthful love for a Venetian girl.
The cycle of Six Meditations begins with La Mélusine, a sea-fairy depicted in a fourteenth-century French legend. Short phrases of this miniature seem to imitate the mermaid’s sighs. Antwort [Answer] is a musical illustration of reading a letter from the beloved. Frühlingsnahen [Presage of Spring] is an enthusiastic portrayal of sunshine, birds, and the nature waking up to life. Wiegenlied [Cradle Song] is a tender lullaby that echoes Chopin’s delicate pianistic style. Entmuthigung [Discouragement] is a restless and stormy piece reminiscent of works by Johannes Brahms, who was a good friend of Leschetizky. The cycle closes on Trost [Consolation], a musical picture of solace and relief.
Aria,Op. 36 dedicated to Anton Rubinstein, is a poignant song without words that recalls the friendship between Leschetizky and Rubinstein in St. Petersburg. The two competed for the heart of a prominent Russian singer, Anna de Friedebourg, who later became Leschetizky’s first wife. Rubinstein’s ability for lyrical playing is reflected in the main subject of this work. In the recapitulation, this melody is allotted to the left hand thumb, which mimics one of Rubinstein’s distinctive performing techniques.
Contes de jeunesse Op. 46 [Tales of Youth] are a series of nine musical portraits-pastiches of the best-known Romantic composers. The three choices on tonight’s program include Hommage à Schumann: Fantasiestück, which refers to Schumann’s famous Op. 12 cycle of eight popular miniatures written in 1837. Hommage à Czerny: Toccata imitates the style of Czerny’s countless piano etudes and exercises. Hommage à Chopin, dedicated to Paderewski, reflects the importance of Chopin’s music in Leschetizky’s artistic development. [hr]
Theodor Leschetizky (Leszetycki) 1830 Łańcut, Poland-1915 Dresden, Germany From an early age he was recognized as a prodigy, and after studying in Vienna with Carl Czerny and Simon Sechter he became a teacher at fourteen; by the age of eighteen he was a well-known virtuoso in Viennese music circles. Besides performing, he became a very influential piano teacher, first at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, which he co-founded with Anton Rubinstein, and subsequently in Vienna. His students included many of the most renowned pianists of their time, including Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, Katharine Goodson, Ignaz Friedman, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Ignacy Paderewski, Artur Schnabel, Alexander Brailowsky, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Mark Hambourg, Elly Ney, Severin Eisenberger, Mieczysław Horszowski, Ignaz Tiegerman and many others. Several pupils also became noted teachers themselves, including Isabelle Vengerova, Anna Langenhan-Hirzel, Richard Buhlig, Czesław Marek, and Edwine Behre. Leschetizky was also a composer of over 70 piano pieces, two operas, several songs, and a one-movement piano concerto. Leschetizky was most known for his liberal use of the minor pentatonic scale. He was married four times, his second wife being Anna Yesipova, who had been his pupil. On 18 February 1906 he recorded twelve piano rolls for Welte-Mignon including seven of his own compositions.
Hubert Rutkowski was born in 1981. He graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw from Prof. Anna Jastrzębska-Quinn studio (a diploma with highest distinction in 2005). He studied chamber music under Prof. Krystyna Borucińska and at the same time studied at the Warsaw University of Technology. Since 2005, he has been working on perfecting his technical and artistic skills in the master class of Prof. Evgeni Koroliov at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. Presently he is working on his doctoral thesis under the direction of Prof. Alicja Paleta-Bugaj at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw.
Mr. Rutkowski is the winner of several international and domestic piano competitions, including: the Chopin Competition in Hanover (2007 / Main Prize); 15th Elise Meyer Competition in Hamburg (2006 / Second Prize); “Medalla per Unanimitat” – 52nd International Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona (2006 / with Distinction); All-Poland Piano Festival in Warsaw (2000 / First Prize); and International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Vilnius (1999 / Third Prize).
He has taken part in many prestigious master courses led by distinguished artists, such as: Halina Czerny-Stefańska, Andrzej Jasiński, Vera Gornostajewa, Victor Makarov, Jan Micheils, Valerij Kozlow, Tatiana Szebanowa, Epifanio Comis, Inge-Susann Römhild, and the Artemis Quartet. In 2005, he participated in workshops of the 10th International Hamamatsu Piano Academy in Japan, where he worked with Piotr Paleczny, Hiroko Nakamura, Piero Rattalino, Michel Beroff, and Arie Vardi.
Mr. Rutkowski has performed both solo and with orchestra in Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Japan, Cuba and Cyprus. In the summer of 2004, he performed with the Orchestra Sinfonica Giovanile Internazionale under the baton of Tomasz Bugaj, as part of the Catania Summer Music Festival in Italy (Sicily). He has made archival recordings for the German broadcasting stations Südwestrundfunk and Norddeutscher Rundfunk.
His interests focus on the unknown works of pupils of Fryderyk Chopin. He recorded a CD featuring the World premiere recording of piano works by Julian Fontana for Acte Préalable label. Most recently he recorded the piano works of Theodor Leschetizky for Acte Préalable (Polish premiere).
Hubert Rutkowski is the founder and President of the Theodor Leschetizky Music Society in Warsaw.
Theodor Leschetizky (Leszetycki)
