Bronislaw Ritter von Pozniak (Polish Bronisław Poźniak,ławvonPoź [pɔʑɲ̩ak]), (26 August 1887 – 20 April 1953) was an Austro-German pianist of Polish descent, piano teacher, music writer and editor.
Life and activity
Pozniak was born in Lviv in the Austrian part of the then divided Poland, the seventh child of an engineer and Austrian civil servant from Polish nobility. Her mother came from a humble background. Her father was a customs official. The young Bronislaw's early interest in music met with little approval from his parents at first, as a civil service career had been planned for him. However, as his talent for music, especially for playing the piano, became more and more apparent, his parents gradually gave up their resistance. After the family moved to Krakow, he received lessons from renowned teachers at the conservatoire such as Felicjan Szopski (1865–1939), (1875–1951) and Władysław Żeleński (1837–1921). After graduating from high school, he attended a newly founded commercial college in Krakow, where it was possible to take the state examination after studying for only two semesters. Only on this condition did his father agree to the artist's career.
After initial artistic successes in Lviv and later in Krakow, Pozniak continued his studies in Berlin at the financial sacrifice of his father. Arthur Rubinstein had recommended Pozniak to his own teacher Karl Heinrich Barth, a relentless piano professor at the Berlin University of the Arts who was feared by many, who had such distinguished students as Wilhelm Kempff and Heinrich Neuhaus. There in Berlin, the foundations were laid for the most important components of Pozniak's later work. In addition to solo concertizing, these were above all his great interest in pedagogical activity (he began teaching at the Ochs-Eichelberger Conservatory in Berlin while still a student) and his passion for chamber music, which then led to the formation of a piano trio. Material hardship accompanied the artistic activities of the now independent musician in Berlin.
In 1915, Pozniak took over a piano class at the conservatory in Breslau, which was in a rather desolate state. The Silesian capital remained Pozniak's main place of activity for the next 30 years until his flight on 3 February 1945. From 1918 to 1936, Pozniak worked at the Silesian Conservatory and he also took over the master class for pianists when this institution was transformed into the "Landesmusikschule" in 1936. From 1919 to 1925, Pozniak also taught at the Cieplik Conservatory in Beuthene, Upper Silesia, and from 1929 to 1931, he was in charge of the master class at the "Polish Music Association Conservatory" in Lviv, which he supplied once a month from Wroclaw. The appointment to this post was a special honour, as it was the class once supervised by Chopin's pupil Karol Mikuli. Together with the full professor of musicology at the Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau Arnold Schmitz (1893–1980), Pozniak advocated the creation of the "University Institute for Music Education and Church Music", an extension of the Institute for Church Music, headed by Schmitz and affiliated to the university, and also became head of the piano department there.
Pozniak's extensive pedagogical work, especially in Breslau, but also in other parts of Silesia and the great success of his pupils at regularly organised recitals and concerts made him a sought-after piano teacher to whom pupils flocked from all parts of the country and especially from the eastern countries. Of the many students, the most successful was the pianist Josef Wagner (1900–1947), Prize winner of the International Chopin Piano Competition 1932 in Warsaw. Also Hans Otte, Hans Pischner, Gerhard Wohlgemuth, Edmund von Borck, Hans-Georg Burghardt and many other notable musicians were students of Pozniak.