Wanda Landowska, a Jewish Polish harpsichordist, teacher, and writer, played a central role in establishing the ideal of a performance, and of instrumentation, authentic to the composer of a piece. This ideal has motivated historical researches ever since. Landowska studied music and composition fir... More informationst in Berlin, and later in Paris, where she became acquainted with several of the great musical scholars of the day, including Vincent D’Indy and Albert Schweitzer. She wanted to learn all she could about the harpsichord, her favorite instrument, and toured the museums of Europe looking for original keyboard instruments. She acquired old instruments and had new ones made by Pleyel & Co. She was especially fascinated by the music of J.S. Bach, Francois Couperin, and Jean-Philippe Rameau, and became the first to perform and record Bach’s Goldberg Variations on the harpsichord. In 1940, the Nazis arrived in Paris and she fled, eventually re-settling in Lakeville, Connecticut. Her home, St. Leu-la-Foret, which was also a school for the study of old music, was thoroughly looted by the invaders. Less information