Aleksander Michałowski

Aleksander Michałowski (17 May [O.S. 5 May] 1851 – 17 October 1938) was a Polish pianist, pedagogue and composer who, in addition to his own immense technique, had a profound influence upon the teaching of pianoforte technique, especially in relation to the works of Chopin and J.S. Bach, and left this legacy among a large number of pupils.

Aleksander Michałowski was born in 1851 in Kamieniec Podolski in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire. From 1867, at the age of 16, he studied at Leipzig Conservatory as a pupil of Ignaz Moscheles, Carl Reinecke and Theodor Coccius. Coccius was his greatest influence, and he was industrious, often practising for 10 hours a day. In 1869 he went to Berlin and studied under Carl Tausig. (Tausig attempted to make him adopt a very high finger position, which nearly ruined his technique.) He moved to Warsaw, where he settled permanently, in 1870.

At about this time he made the friendship of Karol Mikuli (1821-1897), who had received lessons from Chopin between 1844 and 1848, and was head of the Lviv Conservatory. Mikuli imparted to him many of the composer's own ideas about the performance of his works; Michałowski also met Chopin's gifted pupil Princess Marcelina Czartoryska (née Radziwiłł), who played some mazurkas to him. Moscheles had also been a friend of Chopin's, and therefore Michałowski obtained a rich understanding of Chopin's pianistic thought and performance.

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