Frieman, Gustaw (EN)

Frieman Gustaw, *29 October 1842 Lublin, †26 (not 28 or 30) September 1902 Odessa, related to Witold Frieman, Polish violinist, composer, and teacher. He came from a Swedish family that settled in Poland at the beginning of the 19^th century. He was a student of S. Serwaczyński in Lublin; in 1862 (or 64)–65 of L. J. Massart (violin) at the conservatory in Paris and Ph. Rüfer (composition) in Berlin. He began his virtuoso’s career in 1866 with concerts in Dresden, Brussels and Vienna. He gave numerous concerts, many times in Warsaw (for the first time in 1867, for the last time in 1899), Krakow, Lviv, Berlin, Kyiv, and St. Petersburg. In 1888, he went on a tour of southern Russia for several months. He was most fond of playing parlour music. He was not successful as a performer, as he had a very soft-sounding violin and little virtuosic enthusiasm. The exception was the so-called K. Lipiński’s Concerto “Militaire” performed with Wł. Żeleński, but in piano transcription. Frieman also eagerly played Wieniawski’s works, especially The Legend and at least one of Chopin’s nocturne. He performed twice in Zakopane and also in Vilnius, where Irena Karłowiczowa, who was staying in both places with her children in 1889, had the opportunity to listen to him. She described these concerts in letters to her husband in Warsaw; she reported about the concert in Zakopane where Frieman “played with verve and artistry.”

In 1887, Frieman taught the violin class at the Music Institute in Warsaw, and from 1889 until his death at the Odessa Conservatory, where he also served as director; he also worked as a chamber musician, soloist and conductor.

He composed violin miniatures of a parlour nature, published in Warsaw (“Echo Muzyczne, Teatralne i Artystyczne”, Gebethner and Wolff, Sennewald), Paris (Enoch), Berlin (Rüfer), Odessa, and Moscow.

Literature: W. Wiślicki Przegląd muzyczny, “Kłosy” 1874 nr 483; J.W. v. Wasielewski Die Violine und ihre Meister, Leipzig 1910; A. Moser Geschichte des Violinspiels, vol. 2, Munich 1967; I. and A. Spóz Korespondencja rodziny Karłowiczów w zbiorach Warszawskiego Towarzystwa Muzycznego. Biblioteka, Muzeum i Archiwum, “Muzyka” 2010 No. 2.