Original Photograph

Striking original late black and white photograph of the great Polish harpsichordist and pianist, captured in an intimate portrait by photographer and theatrical agent Helen Merrill, who has signed her name in white to the lower left corner.  Mounted to backing board, in very fine condition.  Mounted to 11 x 14 inches (27.9 x 35.6 cm.).

"Eminent Polish keyboardist Wanda Landowska has been called many things over the past century: visionary, diva, virtuoso, Mamusia.  Her story is extraordinary, a self-made legend who mined the rich past of early Western keyboard music to forge her future as an authentic performer and renowned scholar of these musical traditions. Founded in 1925, Landowska’s Ecole de Musique Ancienne in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt was the epicenter for studies of the harpsichord and featured a beautiful concert hall in which Landowska performed many of the greatest works composed for the instrument, most notably J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations in May, 1933." (Chris Hartten, "The Lost Treasures of Wanda Landowska," In the Muse, www.blogs.loc.gov)  Six months later, she became the first person in history to record Bach's towering work.  "The masterpiece had not been recorded before and had slumbered for nearly 200 years, known only to musical scholars.  In the early years of this century Landowska was not alone in her attempts to rehabilitate the harpsichord, but it was she who re-established it with the public, together with the riches of its repertory and it was she more than anyone who brought the Goldberg Variations back to life." (Stephen Plaistow, "Landowska plays Bach," Gramophone)

From the collection of Vivian Wood (1923-2021), the American mezzo-soprano, educator, and author who was a student of Denise Restout and appeared in recitals, oratorios, operas, and on radio and television throughout the United States and European during the 1950s and 60s.  Wood was recipient of the 1955 Young American Artists Concert Award in New York City and a Wanda Landowska fellow from 1961-1968.   She spent the last decades of her career as a professor at the School of Music at the University of Southern Mississippi. (20118)

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Classical Music

Unsigned Photograph

Unsigned Photo/Portrait

• Sold