Henryk Wieniawski
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Henryk Wieniawski (10 July 1835 – 31 March 1880) was a Polish composer and violinist.
Image:HenrykWieniawski.jpg Born in Lublin, a Polish city under Russian rule at the time, his talent for playing the violin was recognized early on, and in 1843 he entered the Paris Conservatoire. After graduation, Wieniawski toured extensively, giving many recitals on which he was often accompanied by his brother Józef on piano. In 1847 Henryk Wieniawski published his first opus, a Grand Caprice Fantastique, the start of a modest but important catalog of 24 opus numbers.
When his engagement to Isabella Hampton was opposed by her parents, Wieniawski wrote Légende, Opus 17, and this work helped the parents change their mind and the couple married in 1860.
At the invitation of Anton Rubinstein, Wieniawski moved to St. Petersburg, where he lived from 1860 to 1872, teaching many violin students and leading the orchestra and string quartet of the Russian Musical Society. From 1872 to 1874 Wieniawski toured the United States with Rubinstein. In 1875 Wieniawski replaced Henri Vieuxtemps as violin professor at the conservatory at Brussels.
During his residence in Brussels, Wieniawski's health was in obvious decline, often stopping him in the middle of concerts. He gave a farewell concert in Odessa on April 1879 and died the following year in Moscow. He is interred in the Powazki Cemetery in Warsaw.
Henryk Wieniawski was considered a violinist of genius and wrote some of the most important works in the violin repertoire, including two extremely difficult violin concertos, the second of which (D minor, 1862) is more often performed than the first (F# minor, 1853). He also wrote two popular mazurkas for solo violin and piano accompaniment (the second one, "Obertass", in G Major), using techniques such as left-hand pizzicato, harmonics, large leaps, and many double stops. Wieniawski has been given a number of posthumous honors. His portrait appeared on a postage stamp of Poland in 1952 and again in 1957. A 100 Zloty coin was issued in 1979 bearing his image. The town of Wieniawska, in the Czechowka River valley is a recent community named in his honor.
But what is sometimes called the "Russian bow grip" ought to be called the "Wieniawski bow grip": Wieniawski taught his students his own kind of very stiff bowing that allowed him to play a "devil's staccato" with ease.
The first violin competition named after Wieniawski took place in Warsaw in 1935, and the International Henryk Wienawski Violin Competition has been held every five years since 1952.
Composition
- GRAND CAPRICE FANTASTIQUE SUR UN THEME ORIGINAL OP. 1 (1847)
- WARIACJE NA TEMAT WŁASNEGO MAZURKA (ok. 1847)
- ARIA Z WARIACJAMI E-DUR (przed 1848)
- FANTAZJA I WARIACJE E-DUR (1848)
- NOCTURNE POUR VIOLON SEUL (1848)
- ROMANCE (ok. 1848)
- RONDO ALLA POLACCA E-MOLL (1848)
- ALLEGRO DE SONATE, PRESTO POUR VIOLON ET PIANO CONCERTANT OP. 2 (1848?)
- DUO CONCERTANT NA TEMAT Z OPERY "ŁUCJA Z LAMMERMOORU" DONIZETTIEGO (ok. 1850)
- DUO CONCERTANT NA TEMAT HYMNU ROSYJSKIEGO A. LWOWA (ok. 1850)
- DUO CONCERTANT NA TEMAT ROSYJSKIEJ MELODII LUDOWEJ (ok. 1850)
- FANTAZJA NA TEMAT Z OPERY "PROROK" MEYERBEERA (ok. 1850)
- MAZUR WIEJSKI (ok. 1850)
- FANTAZJA NA TEMAT Z OPERY "RYSZARD LWIE SERCE" GRETRY'EGO (ok. 1851)
- DUET NA TEMATY FINLANDZKICH PIEŚNI (ok. 1851)
- DWA MAZURKI (1851)
- MARSZ (1851)
- WARIACJE NA TEMAT HYMNU ROSYJSKIEGO (ok. 1851)
- WARIACJE NA TEMAT "JECHAŁ KOZAK ZZA DUNAJU" (ok. 1851)
- PREMIERE POLONAISE DE CONCERT D-DUR OP. 4 (ok. 1852)
- ADAGIO ELEGIAQUE A-DUR OP. 5 (ok. 1852)
- SOUVENIR DE MOSCOU, DEUX ROMANCES RUSSES OP. 6 (ok. 1852)
- CAPRICCIO-VALSE E-DUR OP. 7 (1852)
- GRAND DUO POLONAIS POUR VIOLON ET PIANO CONCERTANT OP. 8 (ok. 1852)
- ROMANCE SANS PAROLES ET RONDO ELEGANT OP. 9 (ok. 1852)
- PREMIER GRAND CONCERTO FIS-MOLL OP. 14 (1852)
- LE CARNAVAL RUSSE, IMPROVISATIONS ET VARIATIONS HUMORESQUES OP. 11 (ok. 1853)
- DEUX MAZOURKAS DE SALON: LA CHAMPETRE (1850?) et CHANSON POLONAISE OP. 12 (1853)
- FANTAISIE PASTORALE OP. 13 (ok. 1853)
- KUJAWIAK A-MOLL (1853)
- WARIACJE NA TEMAT HYMNU AUSTRIACKIEGO (1853)
- SOUVENIR DE POSEN, MAZUREK D-MOLL OP. 3 (1854)
- L'ECOLE MODERNE, ETUDES-CAPRICES POUR LE VIOLON SEUL OP. 10 (1854)
- THEME ORIGINAL VARIE OP. 15 (1854)
- ROZUMIEM, pieśń na głos z fortepianem (1854)
- SOUVENIR DE LUBLIN, polka koncertowa (ok. 1855)
- FANTAZJA NA TEMAT Z OPERY "LUNATYCZKA" BELLINIEGO (ok. 1855)
- SCHERZO-TARANTELLE G-MOLL OP. 16 (1855)
- LEGENDE OP. 17 (ok. 1860)
- DEUX MAZOURKAS CARACTERISTIQUES: OBERTASS ET LE MENETRIER OP. 19 (1860?)
- ETUDES-CAPRICES NA DWOJE SKRZYPIEC OP. 18 (1862)
- FANTAISIE ORIENTALE A-MOLL OP. 24 (1862?)
- FANTAISIE BRILLANTE SUR "FAUST" OPERA DE CHARLES GOUNOD OP. 20 (ok. 1865)
- POLONAISE BRILLANTE A-DUR OP. 21 (ok. 1870)
- WSPOMNIENIE Z SAN FRANCISCO (ok. 1874)
- DEUXIEME GRAND CONCERTO D-MOLL OP. 22
- GIGUE E-MOLL OP. 23
- KUJAWIAK C-DUR
- POLONAISE TRIOMPHALE
- REVERIE FIS-MOLL NA ALTÓWKĘ I FORTEPIAN
External links
- Henryk Wieniawski page at polish Music Center
- Henryk Wieniawski Society (en)
[A copied text of the first link is below]
Henryk Wieniawski was born on 10 July 1835 in Lublin. Wieniawski owes his early introduction to the world of music to his mother, Regina, a professional pianist and the daughter of a Warsaw physician. His mother was also the driving force behind his musical training and subsequent development into a violin child prodigy. At the age of five he began violin lessons and three years later was admitted to the Paris Conservatory, overcoming the obstacles of being underaged and of foreign nationality. After completing with gold medal the accelerated course of study at the Conservatory he remained in Paris perfecting his technique under the care of professor Joseph L.Massart. It was then that he met in his mother's Paris salon of the two most famous Polish emigrees: Adam Mickiewicz (poet) and Fryderyk Chopin. Wieniawski's first, somewhat childish,compositions were written during that time (he was thirteen years old). He returned to the Paris Conservatory and was joined by his brother Josef, where both studied composition until 1850. Wieniawski then embarked upon the unrelenting schedule of concert tours and performances which he was to continue almost throughout his life. While traveling he met Belgian violinist and composer Henri Vieuxtemps; a fellow Pole, Stanislaw Moniuszko, to whom he dedicated Allegro de Sonate op.2; Karol Lipinski, another Polish violin virtuoso and competitor of Paganini; also Robert Schumann and Anton Rubinstein.
The latter was instrumental in securing for Wieniawski a three year contract as the soloist of the court and court theaters in St. Petesburg. Wieniawski's arrangement in St Petersburg was later extended three more times (each time on terms more favorable to the artist) so that he resided there with his family from 1860 until 1872. While fulfilling the terms of his contract he also became involved as a teacher in the Russian Music Society run by his friend Anton Rubinstein and directed a newly founded string quartet. Through these various means he exerted a lasting influence on the development of the Russian violin school. The terms of the contract allowed Wieniawski extensive travel time during the spring and summer when he continued touring Europe on a busy schedule of concerts and social appearances.
In 1872, after his last contract in St. Petersburg had run its course, he resumed the life of the traveling virtuoso with a two-year tour of North America. Upon his return in 1875 he accepted a position of the professor of violin at the Brussels Conservatory but still maintained an extensive calendar of traveling and perfoming engagements. Since his North American tour, which exhausted him, his health continued to deteriorate. He died of an aggravated heart condition on 31 March 1880, in Moscow, in the midst of yet another concert tour. He was forty five at the time of his death.
During his life time he was unquestionably considered "a violinist of genius," an artist of great individuality, intensity of expression, and original technique. The influence of his technique is still evident in the style of some violinists of the Russian School.
The comparatively modest body of compositional work which he left behind attests to the demands of the life of the traveling virtuoso. Compositional forms favored by Wieniawski are consistent with the trends of his times. He composed variations, fantasies, capriccios, larger forms, such as concertos, and smaller lyrical forms (also called pieces de salon) - elegies, reveries, miniatures . In most of his early compositions, including the violin Concerto in F-sharp minor (1853), he put emphasis on technical difficulty and virtuoso effects. They were performance pieces which he composed with himself as a performer in mind. His work from these early years is said to exhibit the various influences of Paganini, Ernst and Vieuxtemps.
Wieniawski's grueling travel and concert schedule obviously interfered with his work as a composer. The relatively stable period of his residence in St. Petersburg (1860-1872) yielded the finest of his compositional works: Etudes-caprices op.18, Polonaise Brillante op.21, and the Second Violin Concerto in D-minor. The latter, a small masterpiece, has become a standard in the violin repertoire. While demonstrating the virtuoso possibilities of the violin technique,the composition is also characterized by Romantic lyricism and passionate melodic expression.
Wieniawski's interest in creating a "national" style of Polish music is evident in the mazurkas and polonaises he continued to compose throughout his career. In those works the influence of Chopin and Wieniawski's own genius produced a singular combination of noble simplicity of melodic line and mature, artistic sophistication. This great virtuoso-composer remains well respected today; in Poland his name is honored by International Competitions for violinists and violin-makers, held every five years in Poznań. (For more information check our list of Competitions).
de:Henryk Wieniawski es:Henryk Wieniawski fr:Henryk Wieniawski ko:헨리크 비에니아프스키 ja:ヘンリク・ヴィェニャフスキ pl:Henryk Wieniawski sv:Henryk Wieniawski zh:亨里克·维尼亚夫斯基