Jaczynowska, Katarzyna (EN)

Jaczynowska Katarzyna, *23 March 1872 (not 1873) Šiauliai, Samogitia, †3 September 1920 Warsaw, Polish pianist and teacher. She received her first piano lessons from her mother during childhood. Later, she studied at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg under K. Lütschg and C. Stein, graduating in 1893. She continued her education with A. Rubinstein in St. Petersburg and Dresden. Jaczynowska made her public debut after Rubinstein’s death, in January 1895, at a concert dedicated to his music. Together with A. Wierzbillowicz and L. Auer, she performed Rubinstein’s Trio in B minor and a Nocturne dedicated to her by the composer. She subsequently appeared in Vilnius, Riga, and, in November 1895, Warsaw, where her performances were received with great enthusiasm by both audiences and critics. Her concerts in Berlin and Dresden likewise earned highly favorable reviews. From then on, she performed regularly throughout Russia, Germany, and Poland (Warsaw, Kalisz, Wrocław, and Łódź). In 1897 she settled in Warsaw, where she became a professor of intermediate piano studies at the Music Institute while continuing her concert career. In July 1899 she obtained a one-year leave of absence and went to Vienna to study with Th. Leschetizky. Upon her return, she resumed both her pedagogical and concert activities. On 7 February 1902 she performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F minor at the Warsaw Philharmonic, and a year later she achieved notable success in Vienna. In 1912 she was appointed to teach advanced piano courses at the Warsaw Conservatory. 

Contemporary reviews of this gifted artist particularly emphasized her superb pianistic technique, beautiful and powerful tone, and, as one critic noted, “a firmness and decisiveness by no means feminine, clear phrasing, and excellent rhythmic precision.” Jaczynowska demonstrated her musical maturity especially in her frequent chamber music performances. Among other works, she performed Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata with S. Barcewicz and the piano parts in trios by A. Rubinstein (Opp. 29 and 52), Schumann (Op. 63), Arensky (Op. 32), and Mendelssohn (Op. 49), as well as in Noskowski’s Piano Quartet, Op. 8. She was often described as a “born Schumann interpreter.” Although Schumann’s works occupied a prominent place in her repertoire, she also performed music by Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Russian composers (Tchaikovsky, Glinka, and Rubinstein). She was among the first pianists to perform the piano works of K. Szymanowski.