Magdalena Rezler-Niesiołowska – artist and educator
Wanda Pazdan
29 Jan 2008
“Of all my students, Magda plays in the most beautiful way…” – that is how Tadeusz Wroński, a longtime professor of the Academy of Music in Warsaw, one of the greatest and most versatile of Polish teachers of the art of violin playing, used to say about Magdalena Rezler-Niesiołowska. The artist proved that opinion was justified by winning a number of such reputable international violin competitions as Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in Brussels, Jacque Thibaud in Paris or Karl Flesch in London. She also won medals at the Biennale in Bordeaux and, together with her string quartet, in Budapest.
Born in Bydgoszcz, in a known family of musicians, she graduated from the Academy with honors, being a student of Professor Wroński and of closely cooperating with him Stanisław Kawalla. As a soloist, she takes part in symphony and chamber concerts and performs recitals in almost all European countries, but also in the USA, Mongolia and South Korea. Her performance was often recorded for the radio and television in Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, West Germany, Belgium and France. Her repertoire includes over 30 concertos with orchestra and 20 recitals. She was a concertmistress of the “National Philharmonic Chamber Musicians” orchestra of Karol Teutsch, performing many solo concertos with it; currently she also takes part in chamber concertos in Germany and Switzerland, cooperating with excellent instrumentalists, such as “Freiburger Barock Solisten.”
Magdalena Rezler-Niesiołowska, following the steps of her professors, is an excellent educator – for many years she led a violin class in her home Warsaw university, and since 1991 she has been a professor in the renown Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg (Germany). Her graduates are members of symphony orchestras in Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Bremen, Hamburg, Detmold, Freiburg, Warsaw, Budapest, Zurich, Istanbul, Seoul, Tokyo and of the International Mahler Orchestra. She conducts master courses in Germany, Poland, South Korea, Japan, Austria and the USA. She is a jury member of violin competitions in Poland and abroad.
Her latest CD “Con bravura e sentimento” with Polish virtuoso music for solo violin, recorded with her husband, a well known conductor Maciej Niesiołowski, gained wide attention and admiration. Wanda Wiłkomirska wrote about it in the letter to performers: “…congratulations both for the idea and for performance….Magda’s performance is unusually delightful…You play Wieniawski Polonaise better than all the candidates for the Wieniawski Competition put together…Scherzo-Tarantella sounds perfect, but to be effective it must be played with such rhythmic precision and such fantastic accompaniment as you do…”
For the last few years (2005-2007) Magdalena Rezler-Niesiołowska has performed mainly in Germany – a lot of recitals of diverse scope, such as a solo recital (with sonatas of Bach, Bartók, Bacewiczówna, Ysaÿe and Meyer), all Beethoven’s sonatas, recitals of Polish music and other. Moreover, together with recognized artists, she took part in many concerts of chamber music with orchestras in Poland, Switzerland and Germany. Recently, with “Capella Bydgostiensis,” she performed Mozart concertos in Germany. With the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, she played a violin concerto of Krzysztof Meyer and with Juliusz Berger – concerto for violin and violoncello of the same composer.
