Felicja Blumental

Who was Felicja Blumental?

Felicja Blumental was a Polish--Brazilian pianist.

Felicja Blumental was born in Warsaw, Poland, into a musical family, daughter of a violinist. She began piano lessons at the age of five, and made her debut at the age of ten. She studied at the National Conservatory in Warsaw, taking piano lessons from Zbigniew Drzewiecki and composition lessons from the composer Karol Szymanowski. She later studied privately in Switzerland with Józef Turczyński, a noted Chopin interpreter and scholar.

In 1938, she and her husband Markus Mizne moved first to Nice, then to Brazil to escape the growing anti-semitism in Europe. She became a Brazilian citizen, and for the rest of her life championed the music and composers of her adopted country. Her subsequent career saw her settling in Milan in 1962, then in 1973 in London.

Blumental's repertoire was wide and adventurous, ranging from the Portuguese baroque to South American contemporary works. Her numerous recordings also included many forgotten concertos by composers such as Carl Czerny, Ferdinand Ries and John Field. Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote his Piano Concerto No. 5 for her; she was soloist at the world premiere on 8 May 1956, at the Royal Festival Hall, London, with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Jean Martinon, and she also recorded the concerto in Paris, under the baton of the composer. Krzysztof Penderecki dedicated his Partita for harpsichord and orchestra to her. Her recording of this work won a Grand Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy of France in 1975.