Wieniawski, Józef (EN)

Wieniawski Józef, *23 May 1837 Lublin, †11 November 1912 Brussels, pianist, composer, teacher and brother of Henryk Wieniawski. He started learning to play the piano with his mother, Regina Wieniawska, E. Wolff’s sister, and with teachers from Lublin, including E. Synek. In 1847–50, he studied at the conservatory in Paris with P.J.G. Zimmermann, A.F. Marmontel (piano) and Ch.H. Alkan (solfeggio), winning prizes from these subjects already in 1849 and the main prize for the piano playing and harmony for graduation (16 July 1850). He perfected playing the piano with E. Wolff. He started a career as a pianist with Henryk Wieniawski by his side at a concert in Paris probably in 1849 (according to some source on 12 February 1848); then they both performed in Warsaw, among others, on 16, 18 and 23 December 1850, also in 1851 and 1852,1850–57 in Kalisz, Radom and Lublin and in 1851 and 1852 in Vilnius and Helsinki. At the same time, they toured Russia and Ukraine; they performed in St. Petersburg and Odesa in 1851–52, later they visited Voronezh, Tula, Oryol, Kursk, Kharkiv, Tver, Kazan, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Moscow and Dorpat – overall they gave around 200 concerts in Russia during two years. After concerts in Leipzig, Munich, Vienna, Dresden and Krakow (all in 1853), they were in Berlin (16 concerts), Kaliningrad, Gdańsk, Poznań (11 concerts), Bydgoszcz, Frankfurt am Main, Würzburg, Munich and Nuremberg in 1854, in Hanover, Hamburg and Brussels in 1855 and in Krakow and Lviv in 1857. From then on, Józef performed on his own and continued studying; in 1855–56 (according to some sources already in 1853), he perfected his piano technique with F. Liszt in Weimar, and in 1856–58 (–1857?) studied composition with A.B. Marx in Berlin. Having settled in Warsaw for longer in 1859, he started organising musical mornings and evenings with chamber music, among others, with J. Hornziel, J. Goebelt and his brother Aleksander, singer; he would play for 2 pianos with M. Kalergis, M. Więckowska and F. Dulcken, later with I.J. Paderewski (he reactivated musical morning in 1873); he also gave concerts in the countryside (Kielce, Piotrków, Białystok, Suwałki, Grodno, Kowno). As a friend of S. Moniuszko, he contributed to publishing his songs and Litanies of Ostra Brama No. 3 (Echos de Pologne, 1862) in Paris and made efforts to stage one of his operas in France. He also conducted oratorio works by Haydn and Beethoven. From 1864, Józef Wieniawski worked in Moscow as a lecturer in so-called musical classes at the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society, and from 1866 as a professor at the conservatory and secretary of the university’s arts council. He resigned from the contract after a year and started conducting private music lessons (according to J. Kleczyński, he had 700 students). From 1868, he combined this job with visiting Warsaw, where his parents lived. In 1871, he performed for the third and last time in Krakow and in 1872 in Dresden (with great success, especially in improvisation). On 1 March 1875, he gave the only recital in Wrocław. In 1871, he joined the group that founded the Warsaw Musical Society (WTM). On 28 February 1875, he was elected the director of WTM and put a lot of effort into improving the quality of concerts, especially chamber and orchestra ones, which he also conducted, and into improving the choir. After three years, he resigned from running for re-election and went to Paris (he became an honorary member of WTM for lifetime achievement). In 1878, he moved to Brussels and took the position of a conservatory professor at a piano class; he organised popular chamber concerts in Palais des Beaux Arts (with J. Hubay) and in Salle de la Grande Harmonie (with E. Ysaÿe), advanced piano courses and from 1900 his own Séances de Piano. He gave one of his last concerts in Leipzig in 1910. He made a few recordings on Phonola and Triphonola piano rolls. He married Melania Hilsheimer (1860–1942), a daughter of a Dresden banker, and they had two daughters, Elżbieta (1892–1978), a violinist and cellist, and Marcela (1894–1987). He was buried in Brussels at the Ixelles cemetery. Polish National Library, Warsaw University Library and Brussels Conservatory Library have rich collections of Józef Wieniawski’s works.

Wieniawski was a prominent pianist, compared to An. Rubinstein and K. Tausig by Polish and European critics. He wasn’t as creative as his brother Henryk, but he amazed with his phenomenal technique, musicality and memory. He played with peace, precision, expression and grace, improvised and accompanied masterfully. He liked instruments with a light keyboard, connected to his conservative technique of playing “by the swivel”. He has a large repertoire; however, he enjoyed playing Chopin’s works the most. It was said that his interpretations of ballads, next to those by J. Śliwiński and A. Michałowski, were the closes to “Chopin’s ideal.” As a member of a jury at European musical competitions and an author of press articles, he was against distortions of text in Chopin’s works, e.g. in Sonata in B minor. He preferred elaborated programmes (e.g. 24 Chopin’s etudes in one evening), introduced the habit of annual concerts and as one of the first Polish pianists – the form of a Chopin recital (Leipzig 1883, Warsaw 9 January 1889, Berlin 16 March 1889). He had the recognition and friendship of many European courts (he often played for Napoleon III), as well as of G. Rossini, H. Berlioz, Ch. Gounod, C. Saint-Saëns, T. Leszetycki, A. Glazunov, and earlier F. Auber, who gave him the position of a “judge” of students’ auditions at the Paris Conservatory. He was interested in the problem of piano technique all his life. He invented the piano with two keyboards that was built and brought to the stage by the Mangeot brothers in 1878, and he was a reliable teacher, cooperating in this field with his admirer, H. von Bülow; for his students in Brussels, he prepared special tips in famous “petite carnets.” His Polish students included E. Pankiewicz, M. Więckowska (later an assistant of T. Leszetycki in Vienna) and B. Domaniewski.

Józef Wieniawski’s compositional legacy was reviewed appreciatively, although some critics believed that in many of his works “the virtuoso harmed the composer;” this thesis could be justified today only concerning Józef Wieniawski’s orchestra and chamber works which were eruditely developed and well-instrumented, yet – as was rightly noticed – too “long-winded.” However, his piano works prove his great skills and good schooling. They represent a romantic model of a virtuosically developed miniature with a monumental sound and captivating splendour; even lighter in terms of emotions, graceful and extremely popular Valse de concert op. 3 (approx. 10 editions), Pieśń bez słów or Nocturne op. 37 could be an example of this. Wieniawski was not an outstanding melodist, but he carried out the theme and constructed the form well (e.g. in the Ballade op. 31, similar to the works of F. Liszt). The most important stylistic support for Józef Wieniawski was the music of Chopin, and partly also of Liszt, from whom he took many ideas from the arsenal of variational, virtuosic and textural means, but he reached for these patterns discreetly, allusively, as illustrated by the melodic and harmonic structures of Souvenir d’une valse op . 18, referring to Chopin’s lyrical waltzes from Op. 69. In the 1980s, the composer came into closer contact with impressionism, which seems to be indicated by the picturesque sound of the contemplation Sur l’Océan op. 28 and some songs. Józef Wieniawski’s work has not been the subject of detailed research so far; it is worth reintroducing it to concert programs, and not only because of its pianistic qualities (during Józef Wieniawski’s lifetime, his works were played mainly by A. Michałowski and A. Jesipowa).

Literature: Album, copy in the Polish National Library (includes cuttings from Polish and European press with reviews of many shared concerts of Henryk and Józef Wieniawski from 1849–55); 22 letters to and from Józef Wieniawski to various Polish and foreign people and institutions, autographs in WTM Library; H. Harley Z korespondencji Józefa Wieniawskiego, Muzyka 1963 no. 3; M. Karasowski “Henryk i Józef bracia Wieniawscy,” Księga Świata 1858 part 1; “Concert de J. Wieniawski,” Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris 1860 no. 18; A. Botte “Auditions musicales J. Wieniawski,” Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris 1863 no. 15; J. Kleczyński “Józef Wieniawski,” Echo Muzyczne i Teatralne 1884 no. 35 and 36 (include lists of compositions); M.M. Biernacki “Przegląd muzyczny” (Józef Wieniawski’s composition concert), Echo Muzyczne, Teatralne i Artystyczne 1897 no. 11; L. Delcroix J. Wieniawski. Notices biographiques et anecdotiques…, Brussels 1908; J. Kaden [-Bandrowski] “Koncerty Józefa Wieniawskiego w Brukseli,” Świat 1909 no. 14; [S.T. Jarkowski] „Koncert Wieniawskiego” (in Leipzig), Scena i Sztuka 1910 no. 18; L. Binental “Józef Wieniawski w setną rocznicę urodzin,” Świat 1937 no. 22; J. Korabielnikowa “Polacy w pierwszych konserwatoriach rosyjskich,” Polsko-rosyjskie miscellanea muzyczne, edited by Z. Lissa, Kraków 1967; L. Gawroński Saga rodu Wieniawskich, Lublin 2003; I. Poniatowska “Twórczość muzyczna w drugiej połowie XIX wieku,” Romantyzm, część druga A, 1850–1900, «Historia Muzyki Polskiej» V, Warsaw 2010; E. Szczepańska-Lange “Życie muzyczne w Warszawie w drugiej połowie XIX wieku,” Romantyzm, część druga B, 1850–1900, «Historia Muzyki Polskiej» V, Warsaw.