Audio Samples
Maria Agatha Szymanowska (1789 - 1831)
Recording 1999, Kulturhaus Lüdenscheid, Bösendorfer Konzertflügel
Recording engineer: Holger Urbach
"Späte Liebe 1823"
John Field was one of Maria Agatha Szymanowska’s teachers. She was the leading pianist at the court of the tsar in St. Peterburg and her piano pieces, such as the Etudes, Polonaises, Mazurkas, Walzes, Menuets and several more than that are said to be the origin fo Frédéric Chopin’s well known pieces having the same titles. He has met and very much admired Szymanowska. Robert Schuann was fascinated by the romantic soul of her music which he called „the light and blue wings of her music“. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and her had a deep affection to each other and her music moved him to tears. The European world of music was delighted by her works.
(Gerd Ellenbeck, Author)
„It sounds quite sad, yet I was certainly sad when I wrote it.“ (Diary of Clara Schumann, 1855)
Johannes Brahms to Clara Schumann, 1893:
„I feel quite tempted to make you a copy of a short piano piece I have composed, since I would like to know if it finds your approval or not. It is teeming with dissonances! Even though the dissonances all follow the rules and can be explained, they still might not be according to your taste. Oh, how I would prefer, even if they were more incorrect, that you found them pleasing instead! This short piece is full of sadness, and the indication ‘play very slowly’ is still not enough. Every measure, every note must sound like a ritardando, as if one were trying to squeeze sweet sorrow out of each one. ... Heavens, the mere description should already whet your appetite!” "