Andrzej Wasowski

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Andrzej Wasowski (January 24, 1919 – May 26, 1993) was a Polish classical pianist. He was born in Warsaw into a family with music and wealth. His mother, Princess Maria Glińska Wąsowska, was a piano professor, and his father’s family had business interests. He began piano lessons with his mother at age four.

In 1931 Wasowski entered the Warsaw Conservatory and studied with Margerita Trombini-Kazuro, who had learned from a student of Liszt. He graduated in 1939 with high honors. When World War II began, Lwów was taken by the Soviet army. Wasowski was sent to the Soviet Union to perform, giving many concerts, and he studied in Moscow with Konstantin Igumnov.

Back in Lwów in 1942, he was allowed to perform only for war relief and not Polish music. The Nazis forbid Polish music, so he played Chopin in basements for Poles who risked their lives to hear him. He refused to perform for the Nazis and was forced into a slave battalion. He eventually escaped Poland and moved to Vienna. After the war, his family’s possessions were seized by the communists, and he became stateless.

Wasowski’s postwar career started in Austria (1945–46), then Italy, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain (1947). He competed in major piano contests, earning prizes in Paris, Viotti, and Bolzano. He toured Western Europe and, in 1951, he performed in Venezuela, eventually becoming a citizen there. In 1956 he married Countess Maria Grocholska.

He continued to tour Europe, South and Latin America, including Mexico, and he returned to Poland for concerts in 1959–1960. His United States debut was at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1965. In 1967 he began teaching at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His wife and children joined him in 1969, and he continued to travel between Europe and the United States to perform.

A landmark moment came on January 7, 1981, when Wasowski played Chopin’s complete mazurkas at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. The performance was highly praised by critics. In 1983 he settled in Washington, D.C., and gave many recitals at the Kennedy Center. He died in Washington in 1993 and was buried in Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetery.

Wasowski made several important recordings, including works by Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Schumann, Weber, and Chopin. The 1971 recording of Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 28, helped cement his reputation. His later Chopin mazurkas and nocturnes received strong praise for their bold rhythm and expressive playing. He described Chopin as powerful and full of revolutionary energy, not merely sentimental.