Madame Szymanowska and Goethe – a burning love?

Walenty Wańkowicz (1799-1842): Portrait of the pianist Maria Szymanowska, 1828. Oil on canvas, Bibliothèque polonaise de Paris/Biblioteka Polska w Paryżu
Walenty Wańkowicz (1799-1842): Portrait of the pianist Maria Szymanowska, 1828. Oil on canvas, Bibliothèque polonaise de Paris/Biblioteka Polska w Paryżu

After her departure from Marienbad on 7 September 1823, Szymanowska and her siblings travelled to Dresden and Pillnitz via Jena. As the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung reported, in Dresden she performed at the “Hôtel de Pologne at increased prices”: “She played the first movement of Hummel’s Concerto in H minor, then the Adagio and Finale from the same master’s A minor Concerto, and finally a Rondo in C major by Field. She has a magnificent firm touch to her instruments, combined with tenderness and much expression. Although she took the tempo of the Hummel compositions somewhat more slowly than the composer would like, her playing had more clarity as a result. She played the Rondo by Field with great skill and with all the idiosyncrasy that the compositions by this master demand.”[43] The Kurjer Warszawski reported that the owner of the hotel, a friendly Pole, had let the pianist have the lighting in the room free of charge.[44] She then performed before the king, his family and the court in the summer residence of the Saxon court in Pillnitz. In the same article, the Kurjer Warszawski continued that the monarch had shown himself to be extremely pleased with the concert and had bestowed high praise upon the artist.[45]

Szymanowska then travelled to Berlin. On 2 October, she and Kazimiera wrote to their sister Teresa in Warsaw about the numerous events that they had attended. There were balls every evening and even masquerades. Kazimiera reported on a performance of the opera “Libussa” by Conradin Kreutzer and on the preparations for Szymanowska’s concert on 10 October in the Königlichen Schauspielhaus, which the theatre’s general manager Carl von Brühl wanted to strongly support. Szymanowska added that they intended to visit the Berliner Singakademie with “the Mendelssohns”. At her concert, which Carl Moeser, who would later be the Royal music director, conducted, she played a piano concerto by Hummel, a rondo by Klengel and an adagio by the pianist and composer Friedrich Kalkbrenner, who she was personally acquainted with and who also visited the Mendelssohn’s at home.[46]

Szymanowska must have continued on to Leipzig the next day, where she gave concerts on 13 and on 20 October. Kazimiera wrote to her parents in Warsaw to tell them that the first concert at which the piano concert by Hummel was once more on the program attracted an audience of more than seven hundred. It was the talk of the town. The pianist and composer Friedrich Schneider, Court Conductor from Dessau, who performed in Leipzig the next day, praised Szymanowka’s talent. On the second date, she played a concerto by Klengel, the Sixth Rondo by Field and a septet and a new rondo by Hummel. The music publisher C.F. Peters requested the new rondo so that the music scores would sell better.[47] The Journal für Literature, Kunst, Luxus und Mode published in Weimar summarised by saying: “On 13 Oct. a pianist, Madam Szymanofska, played in a subscriptions concert in Leipzig. She is, without doubt, the most sublime and brilliant pianist that there currently is. Everyone who heard her practising in the days before were captivated by her performance. […] (We reproduce this from a letter from Leipzig, which adds: ‘Mad. S. should be a Polish Countess and will also visit Weimar’.)”[48]

[43] News. Dresden, Month July, August, September, in: Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, No. 46, Leipzig, 12 November 1823, column 759, online resource: https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10527973?page=390,391

[44] Nowosci Warszawskie, in: Kurjer Warszawski, No. 235, Warsaw, 3 October 1823, page 1, column 2, online resource: https://polona.pl/item/kurjer-warszawski-1823-nr-235-3-pazdziernika,OTc2ODc3NTQ/0/#info:metadata

[45] Compare Bischler 2017 (see Literature), page 70

[46] Kijas 2010 (see Literature), pages 52 f.

[47] Ibid, pages 53 f.

[48] Miscellen, in: Journal für Literature, Kunst, Luxus und Mode, No. 99, October, Weimar 1823, page 816, online resource: https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/rsc/viewer/jportal_derivate_00217576/JLM_1823_0884.tif?logicalDiv=jportal_jparticle_00091710. A more detailed review of the concert appeared in the same publication No. 103, November, Weimar 1823, pages 847 f., online resource: https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/rsc/viewer/jportal_derivate_00217576/JLM_1823_0915.tif?logicalDiv=jportal_jparticle_00091712, a Polish translation of this article appeared in the Gazeta Warszawska No. 181, Warsaw 14.11.1823, page 2476, online resource: https://polona.pl/item/gazeta-warszawska-1823-nr-181-dod-14-listopada,Mjg1MDUzMDQ/1/#info:metadata 

Media library
  • Fig. 1: Szymanowska, 1816

    Zofia Woyno (ca. 1810-1830): Portrait of the pianist Maria Szymanowska, miniature, 1816. Gouache over pencil on paper, 14 x 10,4 cm, Inv. No. Min.628 MNW, National Museum in Warsaw/Muzeum Narodowe w W...
  • Fig. 2: Serenade for Anton Radziwiłł, 1819

    Marie Szymanowska: Serenade for piano and accompanying cello, composed for and dedicated to His Highness, Prince Anton Radziwiłł, Leipzig: Breitkopf and Härtel 1819, National Library of Warsaw/Bibliot...
  • Fig. 3: Marienbad, ca. 1815

    The “Kreuzbrunnen” in Marienbad, ca. 1815. From: Franz Satori, Oesterreichs Tibur, oder Natur- und Kunstgemählde aus dem oesterreichischen Kaiserthume, Vienna 1819, frontispiece, Austrian National Lib...
  • Fig. 4: Marienbad, ca. 1820

    View of Marienbad, ca. 1820. Copperplate engraving, 8 x 13 cm. Title page to: List of spa guests arriving in Marienbad in 1823, Eger 1823
  • Fig. 5: Marienbad, ca. 1820

    Ludwig Ernst von Buquoy (1783-1834): View of Marienbad, ca. 1820. Copperplate engraving, coloured, 28.5 x 44 cm, privately owned
  • Fig. 6: Goethe, 1823

    Orest Adamowitsch Kiprensky (1782-1836): Portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Marienbad 1823. Lithograph based on a pencil drawing
  • Fig. 7: Goethe, 1823/26

    Henri Grévedon (1776-1860): Portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Paris 1826. Based on a drawing by Orest Adamowitsch Kiprensky (1782-1836) from 1823, lithograph, Inv. No. his-Port-G-0077, The Unive...
  • Fig. 8: Goethe, 1828

    Joseph Karl Stieler (1781-1858): Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1828. Oil on canvas, 78 x 63.8 cm, Inv. No. WAF 1048, Bavarian State Painting Collections – Neue Pinakothek Munich
  • Fig. 9: Brösigke’sches Haus, um 1821

    Unknown: Brösigke’sches Haus (Palais Klebelsberg) in Marienbad, ca. 1821, coloured lithograph, 44.9 x 65.1 cm, Klassik Stiftung Weimar
  • Fig. 10: Ulrike von Levetzow, ca. 1821

    Unknown: Portrait of Theodore Ulrike Sophie von Levetzow, ca. 1821. Pastel, 43.4 x 33.5 cm, Klassik Stiftung Weimar
  • Fig. 11: Szymanowska, 1825

    Aleksander Kokular: Portrait of Maria Szymanowska/Portret Marii Szymanowskiej, 1825. Oil on canvas, Inv. No. K.839, Muzeum Literatury im. Adama Mickiewicza, Warsaw
  • PDF 1: List of the Marienbad spa guests, 1823

    List of the spa guests arriving in Marienbad in 1823, Eger 1823, Eger 1823 (cover page missing), Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar
  • PDF 2: Kurjer Warszawski, 1822

    Nowości Warszawskie. Kurjer Warszawski, No. 77, 31 March 1822, page 1, Biblioteka Jagiellońska w Krakowie
  • PDF 3: Kurjer Warszawski, 1823

    Nowości Warszawskie, in: Kurjer Warszawski, No. 183, 3 August 1823, page 1, column 2, Biblioteka Jagiellońska w Krakowie
  • PDF 4: Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, 1824

    News. Leipzig, from Michael 1823 to March 1824, in: Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, No. 13, 25 March 1824, column 204, Münchner Digitalisierungs-Zentrum
  • PDF 5: Journal für Literatur, Kunst, Luxus und Mode, 1823

    Madam Szymanowska – zu Weimar. Journal für Literatur, Kunst, Luxus und Mode, Volume 38, No. 109, November 1823, pages 889-892, Klassik Stiftung Weimar
  • PDF 6: Kurjer Warszawski, 1824

    Nowości Warszawskie, in: Kurjer Warszawski, No. 14, 16 January 1824, page 1, column 1 f., Biblioteka Jagiellońska w Krakowie