"The Salon of Polish Female Composers 1816–1939: Magdalena Lisak – Period Piano"

"The Salon of Polish Female Composers 1816–1939: Magdalena Lisak – Period Piano" is a premiere recording performed by Magdalena Lisak, a laureate of the 13th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. It features selected piano miniatures by Maria Szymanowska, Tekla Bądarzewska, Helena Krzyżanowska, Jadwiga Sarnecka, Leokadia Myszyńska-Woyciechowska, Wanda Landowska, Helena Łopuska, and Zofia Ossendowska. These pieces belong to the tradition of salon music, the atmosphere of which will be recreated on an 1846 period Broadwood piano. The project highlights a phenomenon that remains largely outside the general public consciousness: a highly valuable realm of achievements by female musicians that deserves restoration and examination across several fields of modern scholarship, including musicology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and cultural history. The repertoire's timeframe spans from 1816—the publication year of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz's "Historical Songs," with music composed by Polish noblewomen—to 1939, the outbreak of World War II. There is no doubt that at the turn of the 20th century and during the interwar period, Poland possessed distinct women's musical communities whose activities were closely linked to the "women's movement," carried a distinct ideological and political dimension, and produced socially recognized results. The music of Polish women composers—Maria Szymanowska, whose influence is audible in Chopin's early works; Tekla Bądarzewska's hit "A Maiden's Prayer"; the compositions of Helena Łopuska, filled with subtle lyricism and bold coloristic effects; the ambitious compositional efforts of Jadwiga Sarnecka; the virtuoso stylizations of Helena Krzyżanowska; and the oriental fascinations of Zofia Ossendowska—promises to be a captivating discovery for the modern listener.