Winner of the First Prize of the 17th Wieniawski Competition | Má vlast, Vol. 2

In inviting you to a concert featuring the winner of the First Prize of the Wieniawski Competition, we realise that there is hardly anything more to say in recommendation of this evening. Nevertheless, we shall take this opportunity to introduce the figure of the competition’s patron, for it is worth knowing the artist against whom its laureates measure themselves.

Henryk Wieniawski was born in 1835 in Lublin and was recognised as an exceptional talent from childhood. At the age of just eight, despite regulations to the contrary, he was admitted by special decree to the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied in the class of Joseph Lambert Massart. He completed his studies at the age of eleven, becoming the youngest graduate in the institution’s history. He also began a major concert career remarkably early: while still a teenager, he undertook extensive tours throughout Russia and Central Europe, and later performed in Paris, London, St Petersburg, Vienna, Berlin, and Brussels, among many other cities. He was not only a virtuoso but also a teacher at two of Europe’s leading musical institutions: the St Petersburg Conservatory and the Brussels Conservatory. Accounts of Wieniawski consistently portray an artist of extraordinary charisma, brilliant intelligence, and great personal charm.

Wieniawski travelled, performed, and composed almost without interruption, leading a life of astonishing intensity, especially considering that he suffered from serious illness during his final years. In his youth, he was compared to Paganini, while Hector Berlioz described him as one of the most outstanding violinists ever to emerge from the Paris Conservatoire. Józef Sikorski attempted to capture the remarkable energy of his playing with the words: “The force with which Mr Wieniawski captivates his listeners has something diabolical about it, something fiery and storm-laden.” He was also known for his sociability and was admired by audiences, artistic circles, and royal courts across Europe. At the same time, references survive to what might politely be described as financial recklessness and a fondness for gambling, which occasionally left him in difficult financial circumstances despite his tremendous success.

A special place in his output is occupied by his two violin concertos. The First Violin Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 14, was completed in 1853 and premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. One reviewer wrote after the performance that the audience had been electrified. The Second Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 22, on which he worked for a longer period and which was eventually published in 1870, is among the finest achievements of his St Petersburg years. Toward the end of his life, he also composed a Violin Concerto in A minor, now lost and known today only through references in concert programmes and reviews. Wieniawski remained in the memory of his contemporaries as an artist whose playing was noble, poetic, and full of fire. It was precisely this combination of dazzling technique and intense expression that made him an unsurpassed model for the violinists who continue to compete in the competition that bears his name.