1851–1938 · Poland
Aleksander Michałowski (1851–1938) was a Polish pianist and pedagogue, one of the founders of the Polish piano school. He studied in Leipzig and Berlin, and knew Chopin's pupil Karol Mikuli and Franz Liszt. He taught in Warsaw for many years; his pupils included Wanda Landowska, Władysław Szpilman and Vladimir Sofronitsky. He was renowned as a performer of Chopin's works and as the compiler of an instructional edition of them.
Aleksander Michałowski was born on 5 (17) May 1851 in Kamianets-Podilskyi. He began learning the piano at six. At sixteen, in 1867, he enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory, studying piano there under Ignaz Moscheles and Theodor Coccius and composition under Carl Reinecke; he remained until 1869.
In Leipzig he also made his debut as a pianist, performing a Chopin concerto. Already as a student his repertoire was immense: all the preludes and fugues of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (which he could transpose into any key), all of Beethoven's sonatas, and many works by Chopin, Moscheles and Liszt. Chopin's music remained at the centre of his performing career for the rest of his life.
Michałowski's father was Konstanty, and his mother was Róża, née Regulska. He gave his Leipzig debut by performing Chopin's Concerto in E minor in the hall of the Leipzig Gewandhaus.
After Leipzig, Michałowski spent about a year studying in Berlin with the pianist Carl Tausig, and then settled permanently in Warsaw. In these same years he grew close to Karol Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin between 1844 and 1848 who later became head of the Lviv Conservatory; Mikuli passed on to him much of Chopin's performing tradition. Another acquaintance also tied Michałowski to that tradition: his Leipzig teacher Moscheles had been a friend of Chopin, and among the pianists Michałowski knew was another of Chopin's pupils, Princess Marcelina Czartoryska, who played some mazurkas for him.
In 1878 Michałowski visited Franz Liszt in Weimar. He was initially received with reserve because of his Leipzig Conservatory training, but his playing made a strong impression on Liszt, earning him praise for his stylistic fidelity and interpretive freedom.
Michałowski began teaching in Warsaw in 1874. From 1891 he held a professorship there, leading the class for concert pianists at the Warsaw Institute of Music under its director, Apollinaire de Kontski. Later he moved to the Fryderyk Chopin Music School, which belonged to the Warsaw Music Society. For the first two years, he sat every pupil down with Bach's contrapuntal keyboard pieces before anything else, treating polyphonic playing as the foundation of technique; at the same time, he encouraged imagination and virtuosic flair, often demonstrating his own playing during lessons.
His list of pupils is extensive: Vladimir Sofronitsky, Władysław Szpilman, Wanda Landowska and Jerzy Żurawlew all studied piano with him, while the young Heinrich Neuhaus only managed to take a few lessons from him. For Landowska, it was her lessons in counterpoint with Michałowski that later inspired her to focus on the music of Bach and the Baroque.
Beyond the concert platform, Michałowski was active in chamber music too, forming a violin-and-piano duo with Stanisław Barcewicz and, together with the cellist Aleksandr Verzhbilovich, a piano trio with the same violinist.
Michałowski became renowned above all as a performer of Chopin's works and as an outstanding teacher; he is regarded as one of the founders of the Polish piano school at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He himself started the tradition of solo recitals of Chopin's music on the anniversary of the composer's death, 17 October.
In performing Chopin he sometimes allowed himself personal touches and his own transcriptions, in the manner of the pianist Moriz Rosenthal. One of his successors in Warsaw, Zbigniew Drzewiecki, recalled a manner built on finely chiselled, swift passagework and pronounced elegance, on rounding off the sharpest climaxes into an almost drawing-room tenderness — yet always kept in check by moderation, clean playing and good taste, never sliding into mere sentimentality.
From 1883, Michałowski's wife was Stefania Władysława Kunegunda Załęska; the family had five children — Stanisław, Paweł, Władysław, Konstanty and Aleksandra.
Michałowski's eyesight started failing quickly from 1912 onward, pulling his attention toward teaching and away from the concert hall. A colleague, Madame Ruszczycówna, persuaded him back onto the stage, and he went on giving concerts for years afterward. A series of 1919 concerts marked fifty years since his debut, and in 1929 a single evening brought together both of Chopin's piano concertos under his hands.
Michałowski went on performing almost until his death, touring beyond Warsaw with concerts in Poland, Germany, Austria and Russia. He also recorded extensively for gramophone records, in three separate periods: around 1906, around 1918, and in the 1930s. Aleksander Michałowski passed away on 17 October 1938 in Warsaw, at eighty-seven years of age, and he was laid to rest in the city.
His teaching roster stretched across decades: Henryk Pachulski and Piotr Maszyński had studied with him early on, and later pupils came to include Bolesław Woytowicz, Jadwiga Sarnecka, Mischa Levitzki, Józef Śmidowicz, Wiktor Chapowicki, Edwarda Chojnacka and Stanisław Urstein. Bolesław Kon trained under him while also working with Konstantin Igumnov in parallel, and Jerzy Lefeld served him as an amanuensis, copying out scores by hand. In Warsaw, Józef Turczyński took over directly from Michałowski; neither he nor Zbigniew Drzewiecki had studied under him, yet both carried his school's teaching tradition forward as its leading figures.
The careers of some of Michałowski's students were cut short by the two world wars. Jerzy Żurawlew, who had studied with him, founded the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1927. Wanda Landowska was forced to flee the Nazis, and her musical collection was confiscated. Róża Etkin-Moszkowska was killed in 1944 during the German retreat from Warsaw. Heinrich Neuhaus also took lessons from Michałowski at one time; his own pupils later included Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Yakov Zak and Richard Bakst.
Besides his work as a performer and teacher, Michałowski also left his own compositional legacy: thirty-five piano pieces, mostly short in scale, and he prepared an instructional edition of Chopin's works. The state honoured him twice with the Order of Polonia Restituta: with the Officer's Cross in 1923 and the Commander's Cross in 1934.
Michałowski became known above all as a performer of Chopin's works and as a teacher, rather than as a composer of his own music. He wrote thirty-five pieces for piano, mostly short ones, and he also prepared an instructional edition of Chopin's compositions.
One of his successors in Warsaw, Zbigniew Drzewiecki, recalled that in Michałowski's way of performing Chopin, swift passages sounded finely chiselled and elegant, while sharp climaxes were smoothed into an almost drawing-room warmth — yet this softness never slipped into sentimentality: it was held in check by a sense of restraint, purity of playing and good taste. This style found many imitators. At times Michałowski allowed himself personal alterations and his own transcriptions in interpreting Chopin — in the style of the pianist Moriz Rosenthal.
In teaching, Michałowski built everything on counterpoint: for the first two years, students had to work through Bach's keyboard compositions before moving on to the rest of the repertoire, while he also encouraged their imagination and virtuosic brilliance. In his own youth he had played all the preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier (which he could also transpose into any key), all of Beethoven's sonatas, and many works by Chopin, Moscheles and Liszt.
The site offers two of his editions of Chopin's piano solo pieces: the Étude on an Impromptu, Op. 29, and the "Minute Waltz" — both at the "Intermediate+" level. Getting acquainted with this legacy is best started with these same two pieces: they are compact in form but already demand confident command of the instrument.
Michałowski recorded extensively for gramophone records in three separate periods — around 1906, around 1918, and in the 1930s. He himself started the tradition of solo Chopin recitals on the anniversary of the composer's death, 17 October.
Besides his solo Chopin recitals, Michałowski also devoted himself to chamber music. He formed a violin-and-piano duo with Stanisław Barcewicz, and the two of them later joined the cellist Aleksandr Verzhbilovich to complete a piano trio.
The International Chopin Piano Competition is also linked to his teaching school: it was founded in 1927 by one of Michałowski's pupils, Jerzy Żurawlew.