Leschetizky, Theodor [Leszetycki, Teodor] (b acut, Galicia, 22 June 1830; d Dresden, 14 Nov 1915).

Polish pianist, teacher and composer. He was first taught music by his father Jzef, the music master of the Potocki family at acut. When he was ten he made his first public appearance as a pianist in Lemberg (Lww), and that year his family moved to Vienna, where he studied the

piano with Czerny and composition with Sechter. By the age of 14 he was already in great demand as a piano teacher, and from 1845 until the 1848 Revolution he was also a philosophy student at the University of Vienna. In 1852 he moved to St Petersburg, where he soon attracted a large circle of pupils and, shortly after his dbut, was invited to appear before the tsar. He became a close friend of Anton Rubinstein, occasionally deputizing for him as teacher and conductor, and in 1862, at Rubinstein's request, he became director of piano studies at the conservatory. He returned to Vienna and private teaching in 1878; he organized a music society, which held regular meetings and concerts, and became an important figure in the citys musical activities. Besides his teaching, Leschetizky toured Russia, Poland and Germany, both as a pianist and as a conductor. Of his conducting activities he said: Conducting is not difficilut. It is harder to play six bars well on the piano than to conduct the whole of Beethovens Ninth Symphony. In 1880 he married his pupil and assistant Anna Esipova, with whom he gave a celebrated series of duet recitals until 1887. On their divorce in 1892 he married another pupil, Mrs Dawimirska (ne Benisawska); earlier

(185672) he was married to one of his singing pupils, Mlle de Friedebourg, lady-in-waiting to the Russian imperial court, and a fourth marriage was to yet another pupil, Marie Gabriela Rozborska, who made public appearances as Mme Leschetizky in London in 1908, the year in which they were married. In Vienna a monument was raised to Leschetizky during his lifetime; there is a fine portrait of him by Dreger. In his teaching methods, Leschetizky continued the school of Czerny, which he modified in his own way. He did not demand excessive technical practice from his pupils, but stressed complete concentration on the music and a thorough knowledge of it in every detail. An important feature of his teaching was a regular evening class, in which detailed criticism was made by the pupils under his supervision. His approach was practical rather than scientific; he taught chiefly by demonstration, handling technical and musical problems according to the needs of each pupil. A vigorous, strong-willed man and musician, with a formidable memory and an infallible ear, he was a hard master, and for the exacting demands he made was both feared and worshipped by his pupils. Among the most eminent of the hundreds of pianists he taught were Paderewski, Artur Schnabel, Elly Ney, Mark Hambourg, Ossip Gabrilovich, Ignaz Friedman and Benno Moiseivich. Leschetizkys 49 compositions are chiefly nocturnes, romances, salon dances and other miniatures for the piano. They are distinguished by their virtuoso character and a careful attention to formal structure. He also composed two operas, the unperformed Die Brder von Marco and Die erste Falte, which was produced at Prague in 1867.
BIBLIOGRAPHY M. Unschuld von Melasfeld: Die Hand des Pianisten (Leipzig, 1901, 2/1903) M. Bre: Die Grundlage der Methode Leschetizky (Mainz, 1902, 4/1914; Eng. trans., 1902) A. Potocka: Theodor Leschetizky (New York, 1903) M. Prentner: The Leschetizky Method (London, 7/1903) A. Hullah: Theodor Leschetizky (London, 1906) A. Schnabel: Theodor Leschetizky, AMz, xxxvii (1910), 599 W. Niemann: Meister des Klaviers (Berlin, 1919, rev. 2/1921) E. Newcomb: Leschetizky as I Knew him (New York, 1921/R1967) G. Woodhouse: How Leschetizky Taught, ML, xxxv (1954), 220 B. Moiseivich: Leschetizky, Sunday Telegraph (3 Sept 1961) R. R. Gerig: The Leschetizky Influence, Famous Pianists & their Technique (Newton Abbot, 1976), 271ff TADEUSZ PRZYBYLSKI