Henryk Wieniawski

Virtuosity on a par with Paganini, a Polish musical spirit akin to Chopin - these are the hallmarks of Henryk Wieniawski, the great violinist and composer. Born in 1835, the Polish composer was a child prodigy who was accepted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine. After several years of touring, Wieniawski returned to Paris to study composition. In 1851 he moved to Russia. His first works, the Polonaise in D major and the Violin Concerto No. 1 were published at that time. In the latter, the emphasis is on technique rather than musicality, but even so, the composition impressed the audience. By 1860 Wieniawski had become Russia's most important artist: the Tsar's first violinist and a professor at the Conservatoire. With his distinctive technique he defined the development of the Russian violin tradition. He also developed as a composer: he wrote the main work of his life, the Violin Concerto No. 2. After the Russian period, Wieniawski embarked on a concert tour of America and Europe, and later became a teacher at the Brussels Conservatory. From 1878 onwards, he had to interrupt his concerts several times due to his heart’s condition, and finally, in Odessa, he became so ill that he was taken to hospital and then to the house of Nadezhda von Meck. He died in 1880, in the midst of undignified financial circumstances, only two months before the birth of his youngest daughter.