Koczalski, Raoul (actually, Raul Armand Georg)
Koczalski, Raoul (actually, Raul Armand Georg)
Koczalski, Raoul (actually, Raul Armand Georg), Polish pianist and composer; b. Warsaw, Jan. 3, 1884; d. Poznan, Nov. 24, 1948. He was trained by his parents; at the age of 4, he played at a charity concert in Warsaw and was at once proclaimed an “infant phenomenon” He studied with Mikuli in Lemberg, and then with Anton Rubinstein. He performed in Vienna (1892), Russia, Paris, and London (1893), making nearly 1, 000 public appearances before he was 12. His sensational success diminished to some extent as he grew out of the prodigy age, but he was appreciated as a mature pianist, and particularly for his sensitive playing of Chopin. He lived mostly in France, Germany, and Sweden; after World War II, he returned to Poland and taught in Poznan and Warsaw. He publ. Frédéric Chopin: Betrachtungen, Skizzen, Analysen (Cologne, 1936). His precocity extended to composition as well; he wrote some 50 works before he was 10; he later wrote the operas Rymond (Elberfeld, Oct. 14, 1902) and Die Suhne (Muhlhausen, 1909), as well as many piano pieces.
Bibliography
B. Vogel, R. K. (Leipzig and Warsaw, 1896); M. Paruszewska, Biographical Sketch and the Artistic Career of R. K. (Poznan, 1936).—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire