Wieniawski Legenda ( London 1859) Anna Karkowska

Описание: In 1859 in April Henryk Wieniawski met in London Isabella Hampton. After many concerts in England first with his brother Józef -a formidable pianist virtuoso ( Józefs son in 1935 organized in Warsaw first International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition) ,and now with Anton Rubinstein - a pianist virtuoso,Rubinstein introduced him to Hamptons . Wieniawski's concerts were a great success but to keep Londoners silent like Paganini before him Henryk also had to use a trick because Londoners loved to gossip during performances . They had a lot to talk about in 1859 with brand new Big Ben and ,,it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity ,it was the season of Light ,it was a season of Darkness ,it was the spring of hope,"( at least for man in love) , The National Portrait Gallery was just opened, Mr Dickens just started to publish in chapters his quoted above A Tale of Two Cities in his new magazine , Mr Collins started to do the same of his The Women in White ( so you can clearly see that modern TV Shows took the idea from them ! ) new Crown Colony of Queensland in Australia was created( they didnt stop that for a while), in September Clock of the Clock Tower will start measuring time for many generations of Londoners taking his nickname Big Ben from Benjamín Hall and Mr.Darwin 's just published The Origin of Species . So all of it may had explain why Londoners talked during performances and the simplest way to keep them silent was to play their national anthem God Save The Queen in different variations.
Wieniawski's future father in law Mr Thomas Hampton was not so kin about having Polish violin virtuoso in his family. Not so much maybe against Polish part but commoner and musician more likely. Mr Hampton worried what will happened to his daughter Isabella if Henryk would injure his hand. How he will support Isabella then ?. So overnight Wieniawski in love wrote Legenda and published it in the morning . Check from his publisher he presented to Mr Hampton as a proof that if the worst comes to worst he can support his future wife as a composer. It was not enough. Mr Hampton demanded very high life insurance and in deed till 1880 those high rates were killing Wieniawski.But after all isabella father was right. Wieniawski died at age 45 living his wife with 5 children.
In November 18 1859 in London Wieniawski premiered Legenda and dedicated it to Isabella.
Isabella Hampton and Henryk Wieniawski were married for 20 years till Wieniawski's death.
In 5th week of their honeymoon they came to Lublin where Henryk Wieniawski's parents -Regina and Tadeusz welcomed them in front of there house with bread and salt -ancient Polish custom.
Isabella & Henryk had 7 children (two of them died in childhood.).The youngest daughter Henryka Klaudyna was born in 1879.
Maybe one of the grand grandchildren of Henryk Wieniawski since his daughters Isabela, Irena and Henryka had children,knows something about WIENIAWSKI VIOLIN CONCERTO NO.3??
And no it was not common for public to talk during concerts. In Paris or Milan public attending recitals of virtuosos was quiet, In Warsaw even when famous Lipinski& Paganini concert/duel took place with a lot of emotions ,public was quiet . Only Londoners had this manner of treating performances as radio background like some Turkish pasha for whom Wieniawski performed for several hours!!!without intermission, in separate rooms ending concert with scales just to see if pasha was listening.( He did)

P.S In history of classical music besides romantic /practical beginnings of Legenda there is one also written for English Women and also for romantic &practical reasons since Elgar didn't have money to buy his beloved an engagement ring. Thanks to their love he become one of if not the most celebrated British composer and started recordings at Abbey Road.-, there is one Serenada dedicated to composer wife Zosia Kochanska , one for Elisabeth Rockel written by Ludwig van Beethoven , one written by George Gershwin and used as ,,Hello'' for few women he flirted with.



Wieniawski Legenda (1859 London),
Anna Karkowska Violin
Katarzyna Karkowska Piano