Lidia Grychtołówna

Lidia Grychtołówna (born July 18, 1928 in Rybnik ) is a Polish pianist .

Life

At the age of five she performed for the first time in a public concert in her hometown Rybnik (Upper Silesia). She graduated as a pianist with the highest distinction at the Katowice Music Academy . Her professor was also Zbigniew Drzewiecki. Her talent caught the attention of the great pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli , who invited her immediately and not just once to his masterclasses in Bolzano .

Lidia Grychtołówna won four international competitions for pianists: the V. Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1955), the Robert Schumann Competition in Berlin (1956), the Busoni Competition in Bolzano (1958) and the Competition in Rio de Janeiro (1959).

For her talent she received the “Golden Medal” from the city of Milan. Her performances have taken her to the Ancient Theater in Taormina and the Herodus Atticus Odeon at the foot of the Acropolis, in the underground palace of Diocletian in Split, in the courtyard of the Rector's Palace in Dubrovnik and in the Palais des Nations in Geneva, in the halls of the famous Dresden Zwingers and in Chopin's birthplace in Zelazowa Wola. She played in Rio de Janeiro, where the mercury climbed to +40 ° C, as well as in Novosibirsk at −40 ° C, at an altitude of 3000 m in Quito in Ecuador and in the Netherlands in Amsterdam. She played in the Far East in the cantons of Shanghai, Tokyo, Osaka, as well as in the Arctic Circle in Finnish regions. But those who preferred to experience them in somewhat warmer areas could do so in Vienna, London, Oslo, Bergen, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Belgrade, Zagreb, Sofia or Santiago de Chile, Caracas, Havana , Rome, Palermo, Bogota and of course in all cities of their home country Poland. Concert tours have taken her three times to many cities in the United States, Latin America, Thailand and also Australia. She was the first female pianist to perform Piano Concerto No. in England and Belgium. 4 listed for Sergei Prokofiev's left hand . In Germany she made a record with Philipps of the forgotten piano concerto of the then 14-year-old Beethoven. Lidia Grychtołówna has been a member of the jury in international Chopin competitions since 1980: in Warsaw (also at the penultimate in October 2005), Göttingen, Darmstadt and Miami. In 2002 she was also a member of the jury at the international piano competition in Monza / Milano and in 2003 also at the Asian piano competition in Japan / Tokyo. Since 1986 she has held a permanent professorship for piano at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz . She also often leads piano master classes in Japan (Tokyo), China (Beijing) and the United States (New York and Texas), where she also played a number of concerts in 2002, 2003 and 2005.

In the Parisian journal "Diapason" (No. 152/1970), a critic rated her record at Polskie Nagrania with the DG with all of Chopin's impromptus and scherzos as follows:

“ The recording is excellent and exemplary. Lidia Grychtołówna's vitality and personality are admirable, like Martha Argerich . With its possibilities, it reaches all nuances and colors. You don't know what is more admirable, her powerful touch, her Stacatto a la Horowitz, her feeling for the lyric or her wonderful phrasing. Her excellent technique shows how she is able to emphasize two quarter notes with a triplet (in the theme of the 2nd scherzo) where many other pianists play five notes in the same rhythm. "

In 2005 Lidia Grychtołówna was awarded one of the highest Polish awards, the Commandoria Cross of Merit.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lidia Grychtołówna - The Fryderyk Chopin Institute (en).
2. ↑ Previous winners - www.schumannzwickau.de

Web links

• Lidia Grychtołówna - www.culture.pl (pl)