Henryk Wieniawski |
Henryk Wieniawski
Venyavsky. Capriccio Waltz (Jascha Heifetz) →
This is a diabolical person, he often undertakes what is impossible, and moreover, he accomplishes it. G. Berlioz
Romanticism gave rise to a myriad of concert compositions created by famous virtuosos. Almost all of them were forgotten, and only highly artistic examples remained on the concert stage. Among them are the works of G. Wieniawski. His concertos, mazurkas, polonaises, concert pieces are included in the repertoire of every violinist, they are popular on the stage due to their undoubted artistic merit, bright national style, and brilliant use of the virtuoso capabilities of the instrument.
The basis of the work of the Polish violinist is folk music, which he perceived from childhood. In artistic implementation, he learned it through the works of F. Chopin, S. Moniuszko, K. Lipinski, with whom his fate confronted. Studying with S. Servachinsky, then in Paris with J. L. Massard, and in composition with I. Collet gave Wieniawski good professional training. Already at the age of 11, he was composing Variations on a theme of a mazurka, and at 13, his first works appeared in print – the Great Fantastic Caprice on an original theme and the Sonata Allegro (written with his brother Jozef, a pianist), which received the approval of Berlioz.
Since 1848, Venyavsky began intensive tours in Europe and Russia, which continued until the end of his life. He performs together with F. Liszt, A. Rubinstein, A. Nikish, K. Davydov, G. Ernst, I. Joachim, S. Taneyev and others, causing general delight with his fiery game. Wieniawski was undoubtedly the best violinist of his time. No one could compete with him in emotional intensity and scale of the game, the beauty of sound, enchanting virtuosity. It was these qualities that were manifested in his compositions, determining the range of their expressive means, imagery, colorful instrumentality.
A fruitful influence on the development of Venyavsky’s work was exerted by his stay in Russia, where he was a court soloist (1860-72), the first professor of the violin class at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1862-68). Here he became friends with Tchaikovsky, Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, A. Esipova, C. Cui and others, here he created a large number of compositions. In 1872-74. Venyavsky tours in America together with A. Rubinstein, then teaches at the Brussels Conservatory. During a tour of Russia in 1879, Venyavsky fell seriously ill. At the request of N. Rubinstein, N. von Meck placed him in her house. Despite careful treatment, Venyavsky died before reaching the age of 45. His heart was undermined by unbearable concert work.
Wieniawski’s work is wholly connected with the violin, as is the work of Chopin with the piano. He made the violin speak in a new colorful language, revealed its timbre possibilities, virtuosic, enchanting ornamentality. Many expressive techniques found by him formed the basis of the violin technique of the XNUMXth century.
In total, Venyavsky created about 40 works, some of them remained unpublished. Two of his violin concertos are popular on the stage. The first one belongs to the genre of the “big” virtuoso-romantic concerto, coming from the concerts of N. Paganini. The eighteen-year-old virtuoso created it during his stay with Liszt in Weimar and expressed in it the impulsiveness of youth, the exaltation of feelings. The main image of a relentless romantic hero, overcoming all obstacles, goes from dramatic clashes with the world through exalted contemplation to immersion in the festive flow of life.
The second concert is a lyric-romantic canvas. All parts are united by one lyrical theme – the theme of love, a dream of beauty, which receives a great symphonic development in the concert from a distant, alluring ideal, opposing the dramatic confusion of feelings, to festive jubilation, the victory of a bright beginning.
In all the genres to which Wieniawski turned, the Polish national artist had an effect. Naturally, the folk flavor is especially felt in the genres that have grown out of Polish dances. Wieniawski’s mazurkas are vivid scenes from folk life. They are distinguished by melodiousness, elastic rhythm, use of playing techniques of folk violinists. Wieniawski’s two polonaises are concert virtuoso pieces created under the influence of Chopin and Lipinski (to whom the First Polonaise is dedicated). They paint pictures of a solemn procession, festive fun. If the lyrical talent of the Polish artist was manifested in the mazurkas, then in the polonaises – the scale and temperament inherent in his performing style. A strong place in the repertoire of violinists was occupied by such plays as “Legend”, Scherzo-tarantella, Original theme with variations, “Russian Carnival”, Fantasia on the themes of the opera “Faust” by Ch. Gounod, etc.
The compositions of Venyavsky influenced not only the works created by violinists, for example, E. Yzai, who was his student, or F. Kreisler, but in general many compositions of the violin repertoire, it is enough to point to the works of Tchaikovsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. Glazunov. The Polish virtuoso has created a special “image of the violin”, which attracts with concert brilliance, grace, romantic elation of feelings, and true nationality.
V. Grigoriev
Venyavsky is the brightest figure in the virtuoso-romantic art of the first half of the XNUMXth century. He kept the traditions of this art until the end of his life. “Remember, both of you,” he said on his deathbed to Nikolai Rubinstein and Leopold Auer, “Carnival of Venice is dying with me.”
Indeed, along with Venyavsky, a whole trend that had formed in world violin performance, unique, original, generated by the genius of Paganini, was fading away, receding into the past, the “Venetian Carnival” of which the dying artist mentioned.
They wrote about Venyavsky: “His magical bow is so captivating, the sounds of his violin have such a magical effect on the soul that one cannot hear enough of this artist.” In the performance of Venyavsky, “that sacred fire boils, which involuntarily captivates you, either exciting all your senses, or gently caressing your ears.”
“In his manner of performance, which combined the fire, the passion of the Pole with the elegance and taste of the Frenchman, showed a true individuality, an interesting genius artistic nature. His playing captured the hearts of the listeners, and he possessed, to a rare degree, the ability to captivate the audience from the very beginning of his appearance.
During the battles between the Romantics and the Classicists, defending the young, maturing Romantic art, Odoevsky wrote: “The author of this article can justly call himself a historian of criticism. He withstood a lot of disputes over art, which he passionately loves, and now in the matter of the same art he gives his voice and, abandoning all prejudice, advises all our young artists to leave this old Kreutzer and Rodeva school, suitable in our century for the education of only mediocre artists for orchestra. They collected a fair tribute from their century – and that’s enough. Now we have our own virtuosos, with an extensive scale, with brilliant passages, with passionate singing, with various effects. Let our reviewers call it quackery. The public and people who know art will honor their poor judgment with an ironic smile.
Fantasy, capricious improvisation, brilliant and varied effects, ardent emotionality – these are the qualities that distinguished romantic performance, and with these qualities it opposed the strict canons of the classical school. “It seems that the sounds, at the wave of the right hand, fly off the violin by themselves,” Odoevsky writes further. It seems that a free bird has ascended into the sky and stretched its colorful wings into the air.
The art of the romantics burned hearts with its flame, and uplifted souls with inspiration. Even the atmosphere was poeticized. The Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, while in Rome, “improvised in the Colosseum at the request of some artists, among whom were the famous Thorvaldsen and Fernley … and there, at night, by the moon, in the age-old ruins, the sad sounds of an inspired artist were heard, and the shadows of the great Romans seemed , listened to his northern songs.
Wieniawski belonged entirely to this movement, sharing all its virtues, but also a certain one-sidedness. Even the great violinists of the Paganinian school sometimes sacrificed the depth of music for the sake of effect, and their brilliant virtuosity captivated them immensely. The virtuosity impressed the listeners as well. The luxury, brilliance and bravura of instrumentalism were not only a fashion, but also a need.
However, Venyavsky’s life spanned two eras. He survived romanticism, which warmed everything around him during his youth, and proudly preserved its traditions when romantic art, in the forms characteristic of it in the first half of the XNUMXth century, was already dying out. At the same time, Venyavsky experienced the influence of various currents of romanticism. Until the middle of his creative life, the ideal for him was Paganini and only Paganini. Following his example, Venyavsky wrote “Russian Carnival”, using the same effects that “Carnival of Venice” is filled with; Paganin’s harmonics and pizzicato adorn his violin fantasies – “Memories of Moscow”, “Red Sundress”. It should be added that national Polish motifs were always strong in Wieniawski’s art, and his Parisian education made French musical culture close to him. Venyavsky’s instrumentalism was notable for its lightness, grace, and elegance, which in general led him away from Paganiniev’s instrumentalism.
In the second half of his life, perhaps not without the influence of the Rubinstein brothers, with whom Venyavsky was very close, the time came for Mendelssohn’s passion. He constantly plays the works of the Leipzig master and, composing the Second Concerto, is clearly guided by his violin concerto.
Wieniawski’s homeland is the ancient Polish city of Lublin. He was born on July 10, 1835 in the family of the doctor Tadeusz Wieniawski, who was distinguished by education and musicality. The mother of the future violinist, Regina Venyavskaya, was an excellent pianist.
Violin training began at the age of 6 with local violinist Jan Gornzel. The interest in this instrument and the desire to learn on it arose in the boy as a result of the play he heard of the Hungarian violinist Miska Gauser, who gave concerts in 1841 in Lublin.
After Gornzel, who laid the foundations for Wieniawski’s violin skills, the boy was handed over to Stanisław Serwaczynski. This teacher had the good fortune to become the tutor of two of the greatest violinists of the XNUMXth century – Wieniawski and Joachim: during Serwaczynski’s stay in Pest, Josef Joachim began to study with him.
The successes of little Henryk were so amazing that his father decided to show him to the Czech violinist Panofka who gave concerts in Warsaw. He was delighted with the talent of the child and advised him to take him to Paris to the famous teacher Lambert Massard (1811-1892). In the autumn of 1843, Henryk went to Paris with his mother. On November 8, he was admitted to the ranks of the students of the Paris Conservatory, contrary to its charter, which allowed the admission of children from the age of 12. Venyavsky at that time was only 8 years old!
His uncle, his mother’s brother, the famous Polish pianist Eduard Wolf, who was popular in the musical circles of the French capital, took a lively part in the boy’s fate. At the request of Wolf, Massard, after listening to the young violinist, took him to his class.
I. Reise, Venyavsky’s biographer, says that Massard, amazed by the boy’s abilities and hearing, decided on an extraordinary experiment – he forced him to learn Rudolf Kreutzer’s concerto by ear, without touching the violin.
In 1846 Venyavsky graduated from the conservatory with triumph, having won the first prize at the graduation competition and a large gold medal. Since Venyavsky was a Russian scholarship holder, the young winner received a Guarneri del Gesu violin from the collection of the Russian Tsar.
The end of the conservatory was so brilliant that Paris started talking about Venyavsky. The violinist’s mothers offer contracts for concert tours. The Venyavskys are surrounded by reverence for Polish emigrants, they have Mickiewicz in their house; Gioacchino Rossini admires Henryk’s talent.
By the time Henryk graduated from the conservatory, his mother brought her second son to Paris – Jozef, the future virtuoso pianist. Therefore, the Wieniawskis stayed in the French capital for another 2 years, and Henryk continued his studies with Massar.
On February 12, 1848, the Venyavsky brothers gave a farewell concert in Paris and left for Russia. Stopping for a while in Lublin, Henryk went to St. Petersburg. Here, on March 31, April 18, May 4 and 16, his solo concerts took place, which were a triumphant success.
Venyavsky brought his conservatory program to St. Petersburg. Viotti’s Seventeenth Concerto occupied a prominent place in it. Massard educated his students in the French classical school. Judging by the St. Petersburg review, the young musician played the Viotti Concerto quite arbitrarily, equipping it with “surplus ornaments.” Such a manner of “refreshing” the classics was not an exception at that time, many virtuosos sinned with this. However, she did not meet with sympathy from the adherents of the classical school. “It can be assumed,” the reviewer wrote, “that Venyavsky has not yet understood the completely calm, strict nature of this work.”
Of course, the youth of the artist also affected the passion for virtuosity. However, then he already struck not only with technique, but also with fire emotionality. “This child is an undoubted genius,” said Vieuxtan, who was present at his concert, “because at his age it is impossible to play with such a passionate feeling, and even more so with such understanding and such a deeply thought-out plan. The mechanical part of his game will evolve, but even now he plays in a way that none of us played at his age.
In Venyavsky’s programs, the audience is fascinated not only by the game, but also by his works. The young man composes various kinds of variations and plays – romance, nocturne, etc.
From St. Petersburg, mother and son go to Finland, Revel, Riga, and from there to Warsaw, where new triumphs await the violinist. However, Venyavsky dreams of continuing his education, now in composition. The parents seek permission from the Russian authorities to go to Paris again, and in 1849 the mother and sons went to France. On the way, in Dresden, Henryk plays in front of the famous Polish violinist Karol Lipinski. “He liked Genek very much,” Venyavskaya writes to her husband. “We even played the Mozart Quartet, that is, Lipinski and Genek played the violins, and Yuzik and I played the parts of the cello and viola on the piano. It was fun, but there were also surprises. Professor Lipinski asked Genek to play the first violin. Do you think the boy is embarrassed? He led the quartet as if he knew the score well. Lipinski gave us a letter of recommendation to Liszt.
In Paris, Wieniawski studied composition for a year with Hippolyte Collet. His mother’s letters say that he is hard at work on sketches for Kreutzer and intends to write his own studies. He reads a lot: his favorites are Hugo, Balzac, George Sand and Stendhal.
But now the training is over. At the final exam, Wieniawski demonstrates his achievements as a composer – “Village Mazurka” and Fantasia on themes from the opera “The Prophet” by Meyerbeer. Again – first prize! “Hector Berlioz has become an admirer of the talent of our sons,” Venyavskaya writes to her husband.
Before Henrik opens a wide road concert virtuoso. He is young, handsome, charming, he has an open cheerful character that attracts hearts to him, and his game captivates listeners. In the book “The Magic Violin” by E. Chekalsky, which has a touch of a tabloid novel, many juicy details of the young artist’s Don Juan adventures are given.
1851-1853 Venyavsky toured Russia, making a grandiose trip at that time to major cities in the European part of the country. In addition to St. Petersburg and Moscow, he and his brother visited Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, Poltava, Voronezh, Kursk, Tula, Penza, Orel, Tambov, Saratov, Simbirsk, giving about two hundred concerts in two years.
The book of the famous Russian violinist V. Bezekirsky describes a curious episode from the life of Venyavsky, which characterizes his unbridled nature, extremely jealous of his success in the artistic field. This episode is also interesting in that it shows how disdainfully Venyavsky treated ranks when his pride as an artist was hurt.
One day in 1852, Venyavsky gave a concert in Moscow with Wilma Neruda, one of the famous Czech violin virtuosos. “This evening, very interesting musically, was marked by a major scandal with sad consequences. Venyavsky played in the first part, and, of course, with tremendous success, in the second – Neruda, and when she had finished, Vieuxtan, who was in the hall, brought her a bouquet. The audience, as if taking advantage of this convenient moment, gave the wonderful virtuoso a noisy ovation. This hurt Venyavsky so much that he suddenly reappeared on the stage with a violin and loudly declared that he wanted to prove his superiority over Neruda. An audience crowded around the stage, among which was some kind of military general who did not hesitate to talk loudly. Excited Venyavsky, wanting to start playing, patted the general on the shoulder with his bow and asked him to stop talking. The next day, Venyavsky received an order from the Governor-General Zakrevsky to leave Moscow at 24 o’clock.
In the early period of his life, 1853 stands out, rich in concerts (Moscow, Karlsbad, Marienbad, Aachen, Leipzig, where Venyavsky amazed the audience with a recently completed fis-moll concerto) and composing works. Henryk seems to be obsessed with creativity. The first polonaise, “Memories of Moscow”, etudes for solo violin, several mazurkas, elegiac adagio. A romance without words and a Rondo all date back to 1853. It is true that much of the above was composed earlier and has only now received its final completion.
In 1858, Venyavsky became close to Anton Rubinstein. Their concerts in Paris are a huge success. In the program, among the usual virtuoso pieces are the Beethoven Concerto and the Kreutzer Sonata. In the chamber evening Venyavsky performed Rubinstein’s quartet, one of Bach’s sonatas and Mendelssohn’s trio. Still, his playing style remains predominantly virtuoso. In a performance of The Carnival of Venice, one review from 1858 says, he “further enhanced the eccentricities and jokes introduced into fashion by his predecessors.”
The year 1859 became a turning point in Venyavsky’s personal life. It was marked by two events – an engagement to Isabella Osborne-Hampton, a relative of the English composer and daughter of Lord Thomas Hampton, and an invitation to St. Petersburg for the position of soloist of the imperial theaters, soloist of the court and the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society.
Venyavsky’s marriage took place in Paris in August 1860. The wedding was attended by Berlioz and Rossini. At the request of the bride’s parents, Venyavsky insured his life for a fabulous sum of 200 francs. “The colossal contributions that had to be paid annually to the insurance company were subsequently a source of constant financial difficulties for Venyavsky and one of the reasons that led him to an untimely death,” adds the Soviet biographer of the violinist I. Yampolsky.
After the marriage, Venyavsky took Isabella to his homeland. For some time they lived in Lublin, then moved to Warsaw, where they became close friends with Moniuszko.
Venyavsky came to St. Petersburg during a period of rapid upsurge in public life. In 1859, the Russian Musical Society (RMO) was opened, in 1861 reforms began that destroyed the former way of serfdom in Russia. For all their half-heartedness, these reforms radically changed Russian reality. The 60s were marked by a powerful development of liberating, democratic ideas, which gave rise to a craving for nationality and realism in the field of art. The ideas of democratic enlightenment agitated the best minds, and Venyavsky’s ardent nature, of course, could not remain indifferent to what was happening around. Together with Anton Rubinstein, Venyavsky took a direct and active part in the organization of the Russian Conservatory. In the autumn of 1860, music classes were opened in the RMO system – the forerunner of the conservatory. “The best musical forces of that time, who were in St. Petersburg,” Rubinstein later wrote, “given their labor and time for a very moderate payment, if only to lay the foundation for an excellent cause: Leshetitsky, Nissen-Saloman, Venyavsky and others took it happened … in our music classes in the Mikhailovsky Palace only a silver ruble per lesson.
At the open conservatory, Venyavsky became its first professor in the class of violin and chamber ensemble. He became interested in teaching. Many talented young people studied in his class – K. Putilov, D. Panov, V. Salin, who later became prominent performers and musical figures. Dmitry Panov, lecturer at the conservatory, led the Russian Quartet (Panov, Leonov, Egorov, Kuznetsov); Konstantin Putilov was a prominent concert soloist, Vasily Salin taught in Kharkov, Moscow and Chisinau, and was also engaged in chamber activities. P. Krasnokutsky, later an assistant to Auer, began to study with Venyavsky; I. Altani left Venyavsky’s class, although he is better known as a conductor, not a violinist. In general, Venyavsky employed 12 people.
Apparently, Venyavsky did not have a developed pedagogical system and was not a teacher in the strict sense of the word, although the program written by him, preserved in the State Historical Archive in Leningrad, indicates that he sought to educate his students on a diverse repertoire that contained a large number of classical works. “In him and in the class, a great artist, impulsive, carried away, without restraint, without systematicity, had an effect,” wrote V. Bessel, recalling the years of his studies. But, “it goes without saying that the remarks and the demonstration itself, that is, the performance in the class of difficult passages, as well as the apt indications of the methods of performance, all this, taken together, had a high price.” In the class, Venyavsky remained an artist, an artist who captivated his students and influenced them with his play and artistic nature.
In addition to pedagogy, Venyavsky performed numerous other duties in Russia. He was a soloist in the orchestra at the Imperial Opera and Ballet Theatres, a court soloist, and also acted as a conductor. But, of course, mostly Venyavsky was a concert performer, gave numerous solo concerts, played in ensembles, led the RMS quartet.
The quartet played in 1860-1862 with the following members: Venyavsky, Pikkel, Weikman, Schubert; since 1863, Karl Schubert was replaced by the outstanding Russian cellist Karl Yulievich Davydov. In a short time, the quartet of the St. Petersburg branch of the RMS became one of the best in Europe, although Venyavsky’s contemporaries noted a number of shortcomings as a quartetist. His romantic nature was too hot and self-willed to be kept within the strict framework of ensemble performance. And yet, constant work in the quartet organized even him, made his performance more mature and deep.
However, not only the quartet, but the whole atmosphere of Russian musical life, communication with such musicians as A. Rubinstein, K. Davydov, M. Balakirev, M. Mussorgsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, had a beneficial effect on Venyavsky as an artist in many ways. Wienyavsky’s own work shows how much his interest in technical bravura effects has decreased and his craving for lyrics has intensified.
His concert repertoire also changed, in which a large place was occupied by the classics – Chaconne, solo sonatas and partitas by Bach, violin concerto, sonatas and quartets by Beethoven. Of Beethoven’s sonatas, he preferred Kreutzer. Probably, she was close to him in her concert brightness. Venyavsky repeatedly played the Kreutzer Sonata with A. Rubinstein, and during his last stay in Russia, he once performed with S. Taneyev. He composed his own cadenzas for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.
Venyavsky’s interpretation of the classics testifies to the deepening of his artistic skills. In 1860, when he first arrived in Russia, one could read in reviews of his concerts: “If we judge strictly, without being carried away by brilliance, it is impossible not to notice that more calmness, less nervousness in performance here would be a useful addition to perfection” ( We are talking about the performance of Mendelssohn’s concerto). Four years later, the assessment of his performance of one of Beethoven’s last quartets by such a subtle connoisseur as I. S. Turgenev has a completely different character. On January 14, 1864, Turgenev wrote to Pauline Viardot: “Today I heard the Beethoven Quartet, Op. 127 (posthume), played with perfection by Venyavsky and Davydov. It was quite different from that of Morin and Chevillard. Wieniawski has grown extraordinarily since I last heard him; he played Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin in such a way that he managed to make himself listen even after the incomparable Joachim.
Venyavsky’s personal life changed little even after his marriage. He didn’t calm down at all. The still green gambling table and the women beckoned him to them.
Auer left a living portrait of Wieniawski the player. Once in Wiesbaden he visited a casino. “When I entered the casino, who do you think I saw from a distance, if not Henryk Wieniawski, who came towards me from behind one of the gambling tables, tall, with black long hair a la Liszt and big dark expressive eyes … He told me that a week before that he had played in Caen, that he had come from St. Petersburg with Nikolai Rubinstein, and that at the moment when he noticed me, he was busy work at one of the gambling tables, applied a “system” so correct that he hoped to ruin the bank of the Wiesbaden casino in the shortest possible time. He and Nikolai Rubinstein joined their capitals together, and since Nikolai has a more balanced character, he now continues the game alone. Venyavsky explained to me all the details of this mysterious “system”, which, according to him, operates without fail. Since their arrival,” he told me, “about two weeks ago, each of them has invested 1000 francs in the common enterprise, and from the very first day it brings them 500 francs of profit daily.”
Rubinstein and Venyavsky dragged Auer into their “undertaking” as well. The “system” of both friends worked brilliantly for several days, and the friends led a carefree and cheerful life. “I began to receive my share of the income and was thinking about leaving my post in Düsseldorf in order to get a permanent job in Wiesbaden or Baden-Baden to “work” several hours a day according to the notorious “system” … but … one day Rubinstein appeared, losing all the money.
– What are we going to do now? I asked. – Do? he replied, “to do? “We’re going to have lunch!”
Venyavsky stayed in Russia until 1872. 4 years before that, that is, in 1868, he left the conservatory, giving way to Auer. Most likely, he did not want to stay after Anton Rubinstein left her, who resigned as director in 1867 due to a disagreement with a number of professors. Venyavsky was a great friend of Rubinstein and, obviously, the situation that developed at the conservatory after the departure of Anton Grigorievich became unacceptable for him. As for his departure from Russia in 1872, in this regard, perhaps, his clash with the Warsaw governor, the fierce suppressor of the kingdom of Poland, Count F. F. Berg, played a role.
Once, at a court concert, Wieniawski received an invitation from Berg to visit him in Warsaw to give a concert. However, when he came to the governor, he kicked him out of the office, saying that he had no time for concerts. Leaving, Venyavsky turned to the adjutant:
“Tell me, is the viceroy always so polite to visitors?” – Oh yeah! said the brilliant adjutant. “I have no choice but to congratulate you,” said the violinist, saying goodbye to the adjutant.
When the adjutant reported Wieniawski’s words to Berg, he became furious and ordered the obstinate artist to be sent out of Warsaw at 24 o’clock for insulting a high tsarist official. Wieniawski was seen off with flowers by the entire musical Warsaw. But the incident with the governor had an effect on his position at the Russian court. So, by the will of circumstances, Venyavsky had to leave the country to which he gave 12 of the best creative years of his life.
A disorderly life, wine, a card game, women undermined Wieniawski’s health early on. Severe heart disease began in Russia. Even more disastrous for him was a trip to the United States in 1872 with Anton Rubinstein, during which they gave 244 concerts in 215 days. In addition, Venyavsky continued to lead a wild existence. He began an affair with singer Paola Lucca. “Among the wild rhythm of concerts and performances, the violinist found time for gambling. It was as if he was deliberately burning his life, not sparing his already poor health.
Hot, temperamental, passionately carried away, could Venyavsky spare himself at all? After all, he burned in everything – in art, in love, in life. In addition, he did not have any spiritual intimacy with his wife. A petty, respectable bourgeois, she gave birth to four children, but she could not, and did not want to become higher than her family world. She only cared about tasty food for her husband. She fed him despite the fact that Venyavsky, who was getting fat and sick with a heart, was mortally dangerous. The artistic interests of her husband remained alien to her. Thus, in the family, nothing kept him, nothing gave him satisfaction. Isabella was not to him what Josephine Aeder was to Viet Nam, or Maria Malibran-Garcia to Charles Bériot.
In 1874 he returned to Europe quite ill. In the autumn of the same year, he was invited to the Brussels Conservatory to take up the position of professor of violin in place of the retired Viettan. Venyavsky agreed. Among other students, Eugene Ysaye studied with him. However, when, having recovered from his illness, Vietang wished to return to the conservatory in 1877, Wieniawski willingly went to meet him. Years of continuous trips have come again, and this is with completely destroyed health!
November 11, 1878 Venyavsky gave a concert in Berlin. Joachim brought his entire class to his concert. Forces were already cheating on him, he was forced to play sitting. Halfway through the concert, a fit of suffocation forced him to stop playing. Then, in order to save the situation, Joachim stepped on the stage and ended the evening by playing Bach’s Chaconne and several other pieces.
Financial insecurity, the need to pay for an insurance policy forced Venyavsky to continue giving concerts. At the end of 1878, at the invitation of Nikolai Rubinstein, he went to Moscow. Even at this time, his game captivates the audience. About the concert, which took place on December 15, 1878, they wrote: “The audience and, as it seemed to us, the artist himself, forgot everything and were transported to an enchanted world.” It was during this visit that Venyavsky played the Kreutzer Sonata with Taneyev on 17 December.
The concert was unsuccessful. Again, as in Berlin, the artist was forced to interrupt the performance after the first part of the sonata. Arno Gilf, a young teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, finished playing for him.
On December 22, Venyavsky was supposed to participate in a charity concert in favor of the fund for helping the widows and orphans of artists. At first he wanted to play the Beethoven Concerto, but replaced it with the Mendelssohn Concerto. However, feeling that he was no longer capable of playing a major piece, he decided to confine himself to two pieces – Beethoven’s Romance in F major and The Legend of his own composition. But he failed to fulfill this intention either – after Romance he left the stage.
In this state, Venyavsky left at the beginning of 1879 for the south of Russia. Thus began his last concert tour. The partner was the famous French singer Desiree Artaud. They reached Odessa, where, after two performances (February 9 and 11), Venyavsky fell ill. There was no question of continuing the tour. He lay in the hospital for about two months, with difficulty gave (April 14) another concert and returned to Moscow. On November 20, 1879, the disease again overtook Wieniawski. He was placed in the Mariinsky hospital, but at the insistence of the famous Russian philanthropist N.F. von Meck, on February 14, 1880, he was transferred to her house, where he was provided with exceptional attention and care. The violinist’s friends organized a concert in St. Petersburg, the proceeds from which went to pay for the insurance policy and provided the Wieniawski family with an insurance premium. The concert was attended by A. G. and N. G. Rubinstein, K. Davydov, L. Auer, the violinist’s brother Józef Wieniawski and other major artists.
On March 31, 1880 Venyavsky died. “We lost in him an inimitable violinist,” wrote P. Tchaikovsky von Meck, “and a very gifted composer. In this respect, I consider Wieniawski very richly gifted. His charming Legend and some parts of the c-minor concerto testify to a serious creative talent.
On April 3, a memorial service was held in Moscow. Under the direction of N. Rubinstein, the orchestra, choir and soloists of the Bolshoi Theater performed Mozart’s Requiem. Then the coffin with the ashes of Wieniawski was taken to Warsaw.
The funeral procession arrived in Warsaw on 8 April. The city was in mourning. “In the big church of St. Cross, completely upholstered in mourning cloth, on an elevated hearse, surrounded by silver lamps and burning candles, rested a coffin, upholstered in purple velvet and richly decorated with flowers. A mass of wonderful wreaths lay on the coffin and on the steps of the hearse. In the middle of the coffin lay the violin of the great artist, all in flowers and mourning veil. Artists of the Polish opera, pupils of the conservatory and members of the musical society played Moniuszko’s Requiem. With the exception of “Ave, Maria” by Cherubini, only works by Polish composers were performed. The young, talented violinist G. Bartsevich truly artistically performed the poetic Legend of Venyavsky, with organ accompaniment.
So the Polish capital saw off the artist on his last journey. He was buried, according to his own desire, which he repeatedly expressed before his death, at the Povoznkovsky cemetery.
L. Raaben
