Restitution, Restoration and Repertoire: New Findings in the Wanda Landowska & Denise Restout Papers

Wanda Landowska waited until the bombs were in close range before she fled her home outside of Paris on June 10, 1940, leaving behind her rare musical instruments and most of her vast music library, all of which were confiscated by the Nazi Sonderstab Musik. A Pleyel harpsichord was recovered in Bavaria by the U.S. Army after the war and is today preserved in the Library of Congress's Wanda Landowska and Denise Restout Papers. Carla Shapreau traces the path of Landowska's looted harpsichord through war-torn Europe, its rescue, and return. Bret Werb will discuss Landowska's lesser-known activities as a composer, showcasing some of the creative work preserved among her papers at the Library of Congress, now curated by Library archivist Christopher Hartten. The conversations introduce performances of rarely-heard Landowska compositions by Thomas Sheehan.
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