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MARYLA JONAS (1911-1959)
Polish pianist
Maryla Jonas, one of the pianistic treasures to come to America from Poland as a result of the horrors of World War II, was a pupil of the renouned Ignacy Jan Paderewsk. Her fellow students were Witold Małcużyński and Halina Czerny-Stefańska.
A successful career as a concert pianist in Europe, launched as a result of her having won the Beethoven prize of Vienna in 1933, came to an end with the invasion of Poland in 1939. Her refusal of an invitation by the Gestapo to come to Germany to perform got her arrested. But Maryla Jonas was helped by a German officer who had heard her play and took pity on her, sought refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in Berlin, and eventually escaped to Brazil in 1940.
After six years of ill health, her career as a pianist was resurrected with the help of Artur Rubinstein and others. She made a return to the concert stage in Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1946.
Maryla Jonas had a wonderful, one might say innate, sense of the language of Chopin as is amply demonstrated in the recordings below.
Chopin Mazurkas Op 17
recorded in 1946-1948
2 in E minor
3 in A flat major
4 in A minor
Chopin Mazurkas Op 24
recorded in 1946-1948
1 in G minor
3 in A flat major
Chopin Mazurkas Op 30
recorded in 1946-1948
1 in C minor
4 in C sharp minor
Chopin Mazurka in G sharp minor, Op 33 n1
recorded in 1946-1948
Chopin Mazurkas Op 41
recorded in 1946-1948
2 in E minor
4 in A flat major
Chopin Mazurka in C minor, Op 56 n3
recorded in 1946-1948
Chopin Mazurka in A minor, Op 59 n1
recorded in 1946-1948
Chopin Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op 63 n3
recorded in 1946-1948
Chopin Mazurkas Op 67
recorded in 1947
2 in G minor
4 in A minor
Chopin Mazurka in F minor, Op 68 n4
recorded in 1946-1948
Chopin Mazurkas, Op. posth.
recorded in 1946-1948
in G major
in B flat major
Chopin Nocturne in E minor, Op 72 n1
recorded in 1948
Chopin Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. posth.
recorded in 1948
Chopin Polonaise in B flat major, Op 71 n2
recorded in 1948
Schumann Kinderszenen, Opus 15
1 Von fremden Ländern und Menschen - 2 Kuriose Geschichte - 3 Hasche-Mann - 4 Bittendes Kind - 5 Glückes genug - 6 Wichtige Begebenheit - 7 Träumerei - 8 Am Kamin - 9 Ritter vom Steckenpferd - 10 Fast zu ernst - 11 Fürchtenmachen - 12 Kind im Einschlummern - 13 Der Dichter spricht
recorded in 1948
Handel Passacaglia in G minor from Suite for keyboard, Vol 1 n7, HWV 432
recorded in 1948
For those of you who enjoy murder mysteries, here is my first with a strong musical polemic as background
Murder in the House of the Muse
which is also available as an audiobook.
And this is the more recently published second mystery in the series:
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