An article by L. Binetal published in the journal Świat, 1937, no. 22, pp. 10-11 (public domain, reprinted after the Mazovian Digital Library) recalls the pianist and composer, Józef Wieniawski, on the centenary of his birth. The article is illustrated with a reproduction of a bas-relief from the artist's tombstone in the Ixelles cemetery.

A modernised reading of the text

Józef Wieniawski's tombstone in Belgium.

The shadow surrounding the figure of Józef Wieniawski from the moment of his death (thus within the last 25 years) may serve as a classic example of the quick, easy passing over of the evidence of outstanding artistic activity. This example is all the more "classic", because this work and activity touched various fields, reached extraordinary heights, and in its effects gained loud, universal acclaim over many decades. For more than half a century the name of Józef Wieniawski was world-famous. Wieniawski was renowned as an exceptional virtuoso, as an educator, as a gifted composer, and in our own Warsaw area he was also highly regarded as someone who was most willing to donate his musical skills, his life and artistic expertise, to social causes, to those of a patriotic nature.

The most outstanding page in the history of Józef Wieniawski's life is his virtuoso successes. He acquired them from his earliest years. Barely had he completed his studies (at the Paris Conservatoire as "premier prix"), and already (in 1850) he was firmly established on the concert stage. He appeared on it in his 13th year. He became famous as a pianist when he gave concerts together with his brilliant brother Henryk, who was two years his senior. Everywhere the extraordinary artists appeared, the boys were hailed as wizards of their instruments. They were praised in Warsaw, Poznań, Lviv, Cracow, Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odesa (in Russia they performed about 200 times over a period of two years!), Paris, Brussels, and their home town of Lublin... The young Wieniawski's admiration was all the greater because they included their own compositions in the programme.

The press was extremely enthusiastic about their talents, and the Polish press in particular. As an example, we quote the words, excerpted in July 1854, in the Poznań "local chronicle":

"The Wieniawskis finally came to visit us and made themselves heard in ten or eleven concerts... They have worthily taken their place on the parnassus of the Polish fine arts.... The Wieniawski family not only perform, but also create great poetic works; they are original Polish composers, for in their works there is the wind of Polish feelings, captured either in the rhythm of mazurkas or polonaises... every Pole understands them, thinks with their thoughts... the last concert bore witness to the audience's unceasing elation...". This "unceasing elation of the audience"

constantly continued in connection with the Wieniawski performances. When, after several years of joint triumphs, Henryk and Józef went (after 1857) their own, already completely independent stage ways, Józef Wieniawski's playing art was still beautifully cultivated by him and admired for its extraordinary mechanism, for the great seriousness of his playing. After a brief stay in Germany, spent among other things on piano work with Liszt, Józef Wieniawski spent several years in Paris. Then Moscow - pedagogical activity: the famous Nikolai Rubinstein offered him the piano class at the conservatory of the Musical Society there. Wieniawski soon left the conservatory and began (in 1869) a private professorship, excellently recorded in the annals of piano pedagogy. A few years later the superb virtuoso and teacher appeared in Warsaw. He was one of the founders of the Warsaw Musical Society, one of its first directors (1875), and fulfilled his artistic and didactic task with all seriousness.

Józef Wieniawski spent the longest period of his life in Brussels, as a pedagogue and virtuoso, where he settled permanently and made his life in 1912. He gave concerts constantly, making frequent artistic excursions - to Paris and London, among other places. Wieniawski's pupils treated his teachings with great respect, and the artistic world paid tribute to his manifold talents, his exceptional musicality, about which extraordinary tales circulated in professional circles. Józef Wieniawski's way of life, which was based on the premises of punctuality, regularity, was also properly appreciated. He was known to be dependable when he committed himself to something. Knowing the qualities of Józef Wieniawski's spirit, he was approached on a variety of matters and from Warsaw. In 1900 the Committee of the Warsaw Society asked Wieniawski to represent the Society at the ceremony of the unveiling of Chopin's monument (17 October 1900) in the Luxembourg Garden in Paris.

Wieniawski travelled specially from Brussels. He gave a beautiful, clever speech, testifying to an accurate mental penetration of the essence of Chopin's art. The Warsaw Music Society was in constant contact with Wieniawski. A letter from the director Mieczysław Karłowicz (dated 16 October 1905), reproduced here, testifies not only to communication with the distinguished artist, but also to the fact that his talents were understood and constantly valued here. Voices of praise came from various centres in Poland. One of them, addressed to the artist, assumes great importance if only because of the person sending the script - Orzeszkowa. We have before our eyes a depiction of the last page of this unknown letter - we give its full content: "28.4(18).85 Grodno.

Do you still remember tiny Grodno and one of its inhabitants, who threatened to attack you as far away as Brussels? For the few hours of happiness that your masterful playing gave me, for the few moments spent in your company, there is nothing more I can repay you than a bit of old and mundane blotting-paper, to which a part of my soul flowed. Devoting my ambitions and hopes to the Lord. After all, even in an existence as great as that of a great artist must be, there are bound to be lonely and sad hours. If, at such an hour, you take my book in your hand and find in it a little amusement or forgetfulness of that which the memory of which saddens or pains you, the highest ambition and hope which a writer can dream of will be fulfilled for me. Again, sensitive artistic organisations often bring unpleasant insomnia. Perhaps one of my books will be a remedy for this... and it is probably the influence that fabulists like me can most easily expect. In our circle the name of the Lord is often repeated.

Yesterday Mr Czeczott visited me and for half the evening we talked with him about You. He is a kind-hearted lad, a fierce host now, and the fervent reverence he has for the Lord bears good witness to him. I envied him when he told me that he possessed a photograph of you, and I mustered up the courage to ask you to bestow it upon me as well. I will even certainly expect the gift of it, not from my own rights, but from the Lord's goodness. For my rights in the temple of art are almost the same as in the church of those of our peasants who, without learning to read, syllabicate fervently the prayers from a devotional book, looking with reverence at the priests who celebrate long masses at the Great Altars. I too syllabicate in the temple of art, but for its altars and priests I profess deep reverence. Would you allow me to associate with this sentiment towards you a heartfelt affection and kindness?