(Lublin [Poland] 10-VII-1835 - Moscow 2-IV-1880)
Having completed his violin studies in Warsaw and Paris, he began to be applauded as a concert performer of the highest class throughout Europe. From 1860 to '72, he was a court violinist in Petersburg and a teacher at the Brussels Conservatory. Still, he never abandoned his concert career, which imposed himself on the world as one of the greatest virtuosos of the century.
Known primarily as a performer, als his production musical must be considered essentially from the point of view of evolution and innovations of violin technique. He grafted the great school of Paganini onto musical sensitivity slava, enriching the violin with unexpected effects and expanding the tonal palette and the tonal palette and technical possibilities. His way of treating the instrument is typically Slavic, not immune to gypsy influences, and he can rightly be considered the initiator and, at the same time, the highest representative of the school of Polish violin playing. In addition to the two concertos for violin and orchestra, he composed a large number of pieces for his instrument, with or without piano and orchestra accompaniment: polonaises, mazurkas, variations, fantasies, miniatures, and studies.
Concert no. 2 in D minor for violin and orchestra op. 22 (1870)
This concerto is a more mature and balanced work than the previous one, and it does not present more significant technical difficulties. Still, it is infinitely more interesting from a musical point of view. There are vibrant and touching melodies, the construction is precise and well delineated, and the technical requirement does not prevail over that expressive. In short, we can rightly say that this work fully deserves the favor that performers and audiences still show today.
Composed in the three traditional tempos, the Concerto is divided as follows: "Allegro moderato" connected without interruption through a short phrase of the solo clarinet, to the following "Romanza" ('Andante non-tanto'), and the final "Allegro moderato (à la zingara )," in which the influences on Wieniawski's style of gypsy violinism are clearly evident.
