Waart, Edo de. 56 Wachmann, Eduard 56



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Wiener Leichhandschrift


(A-Wn 2701). See Sources, ms, §III, 5.

Wiener Philharmoniker.


The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. See Vienna, §§5(iv) and 6(ii).

Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag.


Austrian firm of music publishers. It was founded in Vienna on 5 April 1923 by Alfred Kalmus (d 1972). The firm is best known for its series of Philharmonia miniature scores. Kalmus established the company after 14 years at Universal Edition. From the start there was a close relationship between the two firms, though Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag was initially an independent company in which UE were shareholders. In 1923 Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag published a notable group of facsimiles: Bach’s Coffee Cantata, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony and Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung. The firm also issued books, including Hans Gál’s Anleitung zum Partiturlesen, Eckstein’s Erinnerungen an Anton Bruckner and a new edition of Sechter’s analysis of the finale of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. In 1925 UE purchased the firm; since then, Philharmonia miniature scores have been issued by UE, with a separate series of plate numbers. (Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag: September 1924, Vienna, 1924 [catalogue])

NIGEL SIMEONE


Wiener Sängerknaben.


See Vienna, §6.

Wiener Urtext Edition.


Music publishing company, founded in 1972 by Schott’s Söhne, Mainz, and Universal Edition, Vienna. It continues the work of the Wiener Urtext Ausgabe of Universal Edition, which originally published 18th- and 19th-century music for practical and scholarly use. A first collection of 39 volumes of works by Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin and Brahms appeared in 1973. The series, which now comprises approximately 130 volumes, has expanded to include works by 20th-century composers, such as Debussy, Hindemith, Bartók and Schoenberg.

LENNART REIMERS/REINHOLD KUBIK


Wieniawski.


Polish family of musicians.

(1) Henryk [Henri] Wieniawski

(2) Józef Wieniawski

(3) Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski

BORIS SCHWARZ/ZOFIA CHECHLINSKA



Wieniawski

(1) Henryk [Henri] Wieniawski


(b Lublin, 10 July 1835; d Moscow, 31 March 1880). Violinist and composer. The most celebrated member of the family, he was the son of Regina Wieniawska (née Wolff), a professionally trained pianist and the sister of the noted pianist Edouard Wolff. Henryk’s exceptional talent for the violin was discovered very early by his first teacher, Jan Hornziel, who had moved to Warsaw in 1841 to become leader of the opera orchestra, and Stanisław Serwaczyński. When the Czech violinist Panofka visited Warsaw and heard the eight-year-old boy play, he exclaimed: ‘He will make a name for himself’. After playing a brilliant audition for the Paris Conservatoire in the autumn of 1843, Henryk was admitted to the class of J. Clavel and was transferred to the master class of Lambert Massart a year later. He was awarded first prize in the violin in 1846 and studied two more years as Massart’s private pupil. After a concert in Paris on 30 January 1848, at which Henryk was assisted by his younger brother (2) Józef Wieniawski at the piano, Henryk departed for St Petersburg, where he gave five successful concerts and earned the praise of Vieuxtemps, at that time solo violinist at court. In 1848 Henryck played in Helsinki, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw, Dresden and Breslav (now Wrocław). In the autumn of that year he Henryk returned to Poland, where he became friends with Moniuszko. By that time he had begun to compose and felt the need for further study; he re-entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1849 to study harmony with H. Collet. In 1850 he was made an honorary member of the Societé Philharmonique and received the Cercle-des-Arts.

His apprentice years completed, Wieniawski embarked on a career of a travelling virtuoso. He spent the years 1851–3 in Russia and gave some 200 concerts in collaboration with his younger brother, who had developed into an accomplished pianist. Although they were generally received enthusiastically, there were also critical voices, among them that of Serov, who warned against excessive praise of child prodigies and saw nothing but a ‘gift for virtuosity’ in the brothers. However, Henryk soon proved that he was more than a mere virtuoso. By 1853 he had composed and published some 14 opus numbers, including the Polonaise no.1, the Souvenir de Moscou op.6, several mazurkas, L’école moderne and the Violin Concerto no.1 in F minor. With this last work, a tour de force of brilliance and Romantic dash, he achieved his first great success in Germany, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1853. His fame grew rapidly, and he gave many concerts in Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium and France. In 1858 he played with Anton Rubinstein in Paris, and in the autumn he travelled to Britain and gave concerts in London, Manchester, Brighton, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Dublin and Belfast; in 1859 he appeared in London at the Beethoven Quartet Society concerts, playing both the violin and the viola, and also at the chamber concerts of the Musical Union. He married Isabella Hampton, the niece of George Osborne, in 1860 and dedicated his famous Légende op.17 to her.

At this time Anton Rubinstein, who was making a determined effort to improve musical conditions in Russia, urged Wieniawski to join him. Wieniawski settled in St Petersburg from 1860 to 1872 and exerted a decisive influence on the growth of the Russian violin school. He was extremely active, being solo violinist to the tsar, leader of both the orchestra and the string quartet of the Russian Musical Society and from 1862 to 1868 professor of the violin at the newly established conservatory. The Russian years contributed significantly to his growth as an interpreter of great music and as a composer; these were the years when he wrote the Etudes-caprices op.18, the Polonaise brillante op.21 and his finest work, the Second Violin Concerto in D minor op.22. He played it for the first time in St Petersburg on 27 November 1862 under the baton of N. Rubinstein, and two days later Cui, a severe critic, wrote to his friend Balakirev: ‘I still haven’t recovered from the impact of that first Allegro’.

Wieniawski resumed his world travels in 1872, starting with a two-year tour of North America. He gave 215 concerts the first year with Rubinstein, and both artists were near exhaustion at the end. Wieniawski remained for a second year and shared the stage with Paulina Lucca, earning a fortune but endangering his health; upon his return to Europe, he accepted the offer in 1875 to replace Vieuxtemps as professor of the violin at the Brussels Conservatory. He kept this post until 1877 but continued to give concerts extensively, making a German tour in 1876 that brought him into competition with Sarasate. In 1878 he accepted the invitation of Nikolay Rubinstein to perform in Paris at the Russian Concerts organized for the world exposition, and here he played his Second Concerto and the Souvenir de Moscou. Despite his deteriorating health (he suffered from a severe heart condition), he continued his travels and appeared in London in February and June, and Berlin in November of that year. On 11 November he was to play his Second Concerto, but he broke down during the performance. As he was carried off the platform, his colleague Joachim, who was in the audience, hurried backstage and a few minutes later stepped before the audience with Wieniawski’s violin in hand, announcing: ‘Although I cannot play my friend’s wonderful concerto, I shall play Bach’s Chaconne’. At the end of Joachim’s imposing performance, Wieniawski, slightly recovered, embraced his colleague on the stage.

Although his health was shattered, Wieniawski, in financial need, continued his tour to Russia. At a concert in Moscow on 17 December 1878, he had to interrupt his performance of the ‘Kreutzer’ Sonata after the first movement, but his playing was still magnificent when he felt well. Early in 1879 he began a Russian tour with the singer Desirée Artôt but was taken to hospital in Odessa in February. By April, he had recovered sufficiently to give a farewell concert in Odessa, after which he returned to Moscow. In November he was admitted to the Mariinsky Hospital, and on 14 February 1880 he was taken to the palatial home of Madame von Meck, the patroness of Tchaikovsky. His friends rallied around him: a benefit concert was arranged in St Petersburg to raise money for his life insurance policy, which was about to expire and thus leave his family in dire need. He died two months before his youngest daughter, Irene, was born.

Among the violinists of the generation after Paganini, Wieniawski must be ranked very near the top. His playing was shaped by a combination of French schooling and Slavonic temperament. He could toss off technical fireworks, but also move his listeners to tears. The emotional quality of his tone was heightened by an intensified vibrato which he ‘brought to heights never before achieved’, according to Kreisler. ‘Il faut risquer’ was his motto, and occasionally he missed. But at his best he was incomparable. Anton Rubinstein called Wieniawski ‘without doubt the greatest violinist of his time’. Sam Franko, a violinist in the Paris orchestra which accompanied Wieniawski in 1878, recalled 50 years later: ‘I was electrified by his playing. I have never heard anyone play the violin as he did, either before or since. His wonderfully warm, rich tone, his glowing temperament, his perfect technique, his captivating élan – all this threw me into a kind of hypnotic trance’.

Leopold Auer, who succeeded Wieniawski in his posts at St Petersburg, also reminisced about his ‘altogether individual talents…He was entirely different from any other violinist of his day…in his manner of playing. Since his death no violinist has ever seemed able to recall him’. Moser summarized his impression of Wieniawski as ‘unquestionably a violinist of genius, one of the greatest of all times’. Yet, Moser also criticized his bowing as ‘indescribably stiff’ and having a ‘disastrous’ influence on the younger generation. Wieniawski’s method of bowing was indeed unconventional for his time: he held his right elbow rather high and pressed the bow with his index finger above the second joint (he produced his phenomenal staccato by a complete stiffening of his arm). Some violinists, particularly of the Russian school, adopted this method; Flesch called it the ‘Russian bow grip’, though it can be traced to Wieniawski.

As a composer, Wieniawski combined the technical advances of Paganini with Romantic imagination and Slavonic colouring. His Polish nationalism is evident in his mazurkas and polonaises. His major works are the two concertos. The first overstresses virtuosity but has some musically redeeming features. The second (dedicated to Sarasate) is a minor masterpiece, full of Romantic sweep and emphatic expression; these works have become an indispensable part of a violinist’s repertory. His collections of études (L’école moderne and Etudes-caprices) are, next to Paganini’s Caprices, the most musical and demanding study works for the violin. A projected nine-volume collected edition of his works was begun in Kraków in 1962.


WORKS


for violin, piano unless otherwise stated

published


op.

1

Grand caprice fantastique, 1847 (Paris, c1847)

2

Allegro de sonate, 1848 (Leipzig, ?1851), collab. J. Wieniawski

3

Souvenir de Posen, mazurka, d (Kalisz, 1854)

4

Polonaise no.1, D, vn, orch (Brunswick, 1853)

5

Adagio élégiaque, A (Brunswick, 1853)

6

Souvenir de Moscou, vn, orch (Brunswick, 1853)

7

Capriccio-valse, E, 1852 (Leipzig, ?1853)

8

Grand duo polonais, G (Berlin, ?1855), collab. J. Wieniawski

9

Romance sans paroles et Rondo élégant (Leipzig, 1853/4)

10

L’école moderne, 10 études, vn (?Bonn, 1854)

11

Le carnaval russe (Leipzig, ?1853)

12

Two Mazurkas (Leipzig, 1853/4): 1 La champêtre, 2 Chanson polonaise

13

Fantaisie pastorale (? Leipzig, c1855), lost

14

Violin Concerto no.1, f (Leipzig, ?1853)

15

Thème original varié, A (Leipzig, 1854)

16

Scherzo-tarantelle, g (Leipzig, c1856)

17

Légende, vn, orch (Paris, c1860), arr. un, pf (Leipzig, c1860)

18

[7] Etudes-caprices, vn, vn 2 acc. (Leipzig, c1863)

19

Two Mazurkas, c1860 (Mainz, n.d.): 1 Obertass, 2 Le ménétrier

20

Fantaisie brillante, on themes from Gounod’s Faust, vn, orch (Leipzig, ?1868)

21

Polonaise brillante no.2, A, vn, orch (Mainz, c1875)

22

Violin Concerto no.2, d, 1862 (Mainz, 1875)

23

Gigue, e, (Mainz, 1886)

24

Fantaisie orientale, a, pubd posth.

Without op. no.: Kujawiak, a (Leipzig, c1853); Kujawiak, C (Kalisz, 1853); Rozumiem [I Have Understood], 1v, pf (Poznań, 1854); Reminiscences of San Francisco (San Francisco, n.d.); Rêverie, f, va, pf (Leipzig, 1885); other vn pieces; cadenzas to Viotti Vn Concs. nos. 17 and 22 (New York, 1904) and P. Rode Vn Conc. no.7, a (New York, 1996)



unpublished


Before 1850: Aria and Variations, E, c1848; Fantasia and Variations, E; Nocturne, vn, E, c1848; 3, Romances; Rondo alla polacca, e; Variations on an Original Mazurka, c1846

c1850–51: 3 duos concertants, collab. J. Wieniawski; Fantasia on a theme from Meyerbeer’s Le prophète, c1850; Fantasia on a theme from Grétry’s Richard Coeur-de-lion, 1851; March; 2 mazurkas, 1851; Variations on ‘Jechal Kozak zza dunaju’, c1848; Variations on the Russian National Anthem

After 1851: cadenzas to Beethoven Vn Conc., 1854, lost; Fantasia on a theme from Bellini’s La sonnambula, c1855; Souvenir de Lublin, concert polka, c1855; other pieces

Wieniawski

(2) Józef Wieniawski


(b Lublin, 23 May 1837; d Brussels, 11 Nov 1912). Pianist and composer, brother of (1) Henryk Wieniawski. After early piano studies with Franciszek Synek in Lublin, he entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1847, where his piano teachers were P.J.G. Zimmermann and A.F. Marmontel. He won a second prize in the piano and solfège in 1848, and first prize the following year. He left the Conservatoire in 1850 with a second prize in harmony. In 1851–3 he gave joint concerts with his elder brother throughout Russia. A scholarship from the tsar enabled him to study with Liszt in Weimar (1855–6); from there he proceeded to Berlin to complete his theoretical studies with A.B. Marx (1856–8). He re-established himself in Paris, played for Napoleon III, and won the friendship and admiration of many musicians, including Berlioz, Gounod and Auber.

In 1864–5 Wieniawski was active as a piano teacher in Moscow, where the Russian Musical Society had established music courses. This led to the founding of the Moscow Conservatory in 1866, under the directorship of Nikolay Rubinstein, and Wieniawski became a member of the piano faculty. However, he left the Conservatory after one term of teaching and returned to his private piano classes. He was a co-founder of the Warsaw Music Society, and was elected to its board in 1871. In 1875–6 he was active in the Warsaw Musical Society as director, conductor and chamber music player. In 1878 he accepted an appointment as professor of the piano at the Brussels Conservatory, a post he kept until his death.

As a pianist, Wieniawski was distinguished by fine musicianship, elegance, accomplished technique and great facility in sight-reading, transposing and accompanying. Yet he seemed to have lacked the overpowering temperament and personality of his brother. He was a very conscientious teacher and provided his students with written instructions which Bülow, one of his admirers, described as a ‘veritable résumé of piano teaching’.

Wieniawski collaborated with the piano manufacturer Mangeot in building a piano with two keyboards, the second of which was tuned in reverse. It was patented in 1876 and first played at the Paris Exposition in 1878, but did not find wider acceptance. As a composer, Wieniawski was far more versatile than his brother, yet his works are almost totally forgotten. His 24 études de mécanisme et du style summarize his teaching experience over many years. He maintained a lifelong interest in Polish music, particularly in the works of Moniuszko, which he strove to make known in the West.


WORKS


(selective list)

all published



Orch: Sym., D, op.49; Pf Conc., g, op.20; Fantasia, 2 pf, orch; Suite romantique, op.41; Guillaume de Paciturne, ov., op.43

Chbr: Sonata, vn, pf, op.24; Sonata, vc, pf, op.26; Str Qt, op.32; Pf Trio, G, op.40; Allegro de Sonate, op.2, vn, pf, collab. H. Wieniawski; Grand duo Polonaise, D, vn, pf, 1852, collab. H. Wieniawski

Pf solo: 5 waltzes, opp.3, 7, 30, 46, 1 without op. no.; 2 tarantellas, opp.4, 35; 3 fantasias, op.6 (with variations on a theme from Bellini’s La sonnambula), op.25 (with fugue), 1 without op. no.; 2 barcarolles, opp.9, 29; 4 polonaises, opp.13, 21, 27, 48; Rondo, op.15; 2 impromptus, opp.19, 34; Sonata, b, op.22; 9 mazurkas, 8 as op.23, op.41 (‘de concert’); Ballade, e, op.31; 2 études de concert, opp.33, 36; Nocturne, E, op.37; 24 études, op.44; [4] Piano Pieces, op.51; cadenza to Beethoven’s Pf Conc. no.3; other works

Vocal: Modlitwa [Prayer], 1v, pf, op.16; Pieśń wiosenna i pieśń jesienna [Spring and Autumn Pieces], 1v, pf, op.17; 4 Gesänge, 1v, pf, op.38; [6] Gesänge, 2vv, pf, op.47

For complete list, see SMP

Wieniawski

(3) Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski


(b Warsaw, 27 Nov 1879; d Bydgoscz, 19 April 1950). Composer, nephew of (1) Henryk and (2) Józef Wieniawski. He began his studies as a child at Warsaw Conservatory with H. Melcer-Szczawiński (piano) and Z. Noskowski (composition). He continued his composition studies with Bargiel at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik and also studied art history and literature at the university there. In 1906 he moved to Paris, where he became a pupil of d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum and later of Fauré and Gédalge at the Conservatoire; his first symphonic poem, ‘Pieśń Kamaralzamana’ (‘The Song of Kamaralzaman’), was performed in 1910 by the Orchestre Lamoureux. During World War I he was an officer in the French army. He returned to Warsaw in 1918 and was appointed to the Chopin Music School; from 1928 to World War II, and for a brief period after 1945 he was its director. In 1928 he also took over the leadership of the Warsaw Musical Society. He was organizer of the 2nd (1932) and 3rd (1937) Chopin Piano Competitions and the president of their jury. He was also initiator, organizer and president of the jury of the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, initiated in 1935. In 1932 he was elected chairman of the Union of Polish Composers and received the medal of the City of Warsaw in 1936 in recognition of his organizational work. He was also active as a music critic and wrote the first monograph on the Polish composer Ludomir Różycki. After World War II he resumed the directorship of the Chopin Music School for a brief period.

As a composer, Wieniawski did not exert any major influence on Polish music. He continued the style of late French impressionism at a time when it had begun to be outmoded. Only his later works show stronger Polish national characteristics.


WORKS

theatrical


Megaë (op, 2, M. Synnestredt and A. Wieniawski), Warsaw, 28 Dec 1912, vs (Paris, 1910), fs, reorchd, 1947, PL-Wtm

Lalita (ballet, 8, C. Jelenty), 1922

Zofka (comic opera, 3), 1923

Aktea w Jerozolimie [Actea in Jerusalem] (ballet, 4), fragment, Warsaw, 4 June 1927

Wyzwolony [The Freed Man] (op, 1, after A. Villier de l’Isle: L’évasion), Warsaw, 5 July 1928

Król kochanek [The King as Paramour] (musical comedy 5, W. Fabry), Warsaw, 19 March 1931

other works


Bajeczki [Tittle-Tattle], sinfonietta, PL-Wtm; 8 sym. poems; other orch works; 2 str qts; Pensée fugitive, vn, pf; Orientale, vn, pf (Warsaw, 1930); pf solo pieces, incl. 12 łatwych utworow [12 Easy Pieces] (Warsaw, 1945), Mały tryptyk [Short Triptych] (Warsaw, 1946); songs, 1v, orch; songs, 1v, pf (Paris, n.d.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY


SMP

J. Delcroix: Joseph Wieniawski (Brussels, 1908)

W. Niemann: Das Klavierbuch (Leipzig, 1910), 245

L. Auer: My Long Life in Music (New York, 1923)

A. Moser: Geschichte des Violinspiels (Berlin, 1923, rev. 2/1966)

J. Reiss: Henryk Wieniawski (Warsaw, 1931, 4/1985)

T. Strumitto: ‘Koncerty skrzypcowe Wieniawskiego [Violin Concertos by Wieniawski] (Kraków, 1955)

I. Yampol'sky: G. Vinyavsky [H. Wieniawski] (Moscow, 1955)

L. Ginzburg: ‘Genrik Vinyavsky v Rossie’ [Henryk Wieniawski in Russia], Russko-polskie muzikalnie sviazi, ed. I. Bel'za (Moscow, 1963), 256

V. Grigoriev: G. Vinyavsky [H. Wieniawski] (Moscow, 1966)

W. Dulęba: Henryk Wieniawski (Kraków, 1967, 2/1974, incl. complete discography)

E. Grabkowski: Henryk Wieniawski, 1835–1880: kalendarium (Poznań, 1986) [in Pol., Eng. and Ger.]

E. Grabkowski: Henryk Wieniawski i jego muzyka [Henryk Wieniawski and his music (Warsaw, 1990)

E. Grabkowski: Henryk Wieniawski: Kompozytor-wirtuoz-pedagog [H.W.: Composer, Virtuoso, Teacher] (Poznań, 1996)

L.M. Nishida: A Study of Nineteenth-Century Violin Virtuosos: selected Composers and their Works (diss., California State U., 1997)

A. Szymańska: Faktura i forma koncertów skrzypcowych Henryka Wieniawskiego [Texture and Form in Violin Concertos by H. Wieniawski] (diss., U. of Warsaw, 1997)


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