Wanda Landowska - 1879/1959 - Polish-French Harpsichord revivalist

Dating back to the Middle Ages, the harpsichord, a European keyboard instrument, saw its Golden Age in the 17th and 18th Centuries. In 1789, the highly decorative, ornate harpsichords in France, which represented a symbol of wealth and the ruling aristocracy, were virtually all destroyed during the Revolution. By the early 19th Century, the harpsichord had fallen into desuetude with the rise in popularity of the piano, and it took little more than a century for the art and knowledge of how to build good harpsichords to die out.

Wanda Landowska was a pioneer in the revival of the instrument in the early part of the 20th Century and was the first to record Bach's Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord in 1931. What makes her contribution significant is that by the turn of the Century, harpsichord music was a long lost and forgotten repertoire. Her passion for music of the past led her to research and study extensively Early Music and harpsichords throughout Europe. It resulted in her rediscovery of the art of playing the instrument.