Description

STANISLAW BARCEWICZ (WARSAW, 16 APRIL, 1858 – WARSAW, 1 SEPTEMBER, 1929)

 

 

 

 

Stanislaw Barcewicz was a Polish violinist, conductor and teacher. Although his repertoire included almost all of the classical and romantic violin literature, he was valued primarily for his interpretations of works by Henryk Wieniawski and Felix Mendelssohn. He also premiered works by his teacher Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, including the Polish premiere of the Violin Concerto in D. He played on a Guadagnini violin.

Stanisław Barcewicz was born in Warsaw in 1858, and first studied violin at the Institute of Music there under Apollinaire de Kontski (Apolinary Kątski) and Władysław Gorski. At the age of 11 he publicly performed Beriot’s Violin Concerto No. 7 in G major. He then studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers were Ferdinand Laub, Jan Hřímalý and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He graduated in 1876 with a Gold Medal.

On 20 or 21 September 1878, as part of the 1878 Paris World Exhibition, he performed at the Trocadéro in a concert of works by Tchaikovsky, including the first public performance of the Valse-Scherzo in C, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein. He later toured Europe extensively, including appearances in Leipzig, Dresden, Hamburg, Elberfeld, Koblenz, Berlin, Königsberg, London, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, and Riga.

In 1881 Barcewicz premiered Johan Svendsen’s Romance for Violin and Orchestra in Kristiania (Oslo). On 14 January 1892 he gave the Polish premieres of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D and Sérénade mélancolique, in Warsaw, under the composer’s baton.

In 1885, he became the concertmaster and second conductor of the Warsaw Opera. He occasionally conducted operas there, and he also conducted the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1886, he was appointed violin and viola professor at the Warsaw Conservatory, and was the institution’s Director from 1910 to 1918, succeeding Emil Młynarski. Among his pupils in Warsaw can be mentioned Mieczysław Karłowicz, Grzegorz Fitelberg, Pyotr Stolyarsky (teacher of David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Boris Goldstein, Mikhail Goldstein and others), Henryk Gold, Aleksander Jabłoński (later to become a renowned physicist), Paul Godwin, and Józef Ozimiński.

Barcewicz also founded and led the Warsaw String Quartet from 1892 until his death, and he also played in a renowned piano trio with the Polish pianist Aleksander Michałowski and the Russian cellist Aleksandr Verzhbilovich.

In 1902 his former pupil Mieczysław Karłowicz wrote his Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 8 for Barcewicz, who premiered it on 21 March 1903 with the Berlin Philharmonic under the composer.

 

 

 

KAROL GREGOROWICZ (ST. PETERSBURG, 1867 – ? 1921)

 

 

 

 

Karol Gregorowicz was a Polish-Russian virtuoso violinist and distinguished quartet leader, admired for a refined late-19th-century style marked by fluid technique, seamless legato, and a concentrated, noble tone. Born in St. Petersburg to Polish parents, he was a child prodigy and began concert touring at the age of ten.

Gregorowicz received his earliest instruction from his father before entering the class of Vassily Bezekirsky in 1878. He later continued his studies in Berlin with Joseph Joachim, who famously regarded him as a “finished violinist” upon his arrival. Gregorowicz made a brilliant public debut in 1886 and soon established an international reputation through extensive touring.

Highly esteemed by his contemporaries, he was counted by Pablo de Sarasate among the finest violinists of his generation. From 1910, Gregorowicz served as leader of the St. Petersburg Quartet, gaining particular distinction as a chamber musician while continuing his solo career.

His recordings, made in 1909, document an elegant and controlled artistry, notable for its impeccable legato and stylistic poise. Among the works he recorded are Wieniawski’s Obertass Mazurka and Souvenir de Moscou, as well as popular virtuoso pieces such as The Bee and Bach’s Air in D.

Gregorowicz died in 1921 while attempting to flee Russia for the West in the aftermath of the 1917 Revolution, bringing to an abrupt end the life of an artist who embodied the highest traditions of the classical violin school.

 

 

JÓZEF OZIMIŃSKI (6 DECEMBER 1877, WARSAW – 8 JULY 1945, WARSAW)

 

 

 

 

Józef Ozimiński was a Polish violinist and conductor. His teachers included Stanislaw Barcewicz. On 1 November 1922 in Warsaw, he was the soloist in the premiere performance of Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1.

 

 

 

IGNATZ WAGHALTER (WARSAW, 15 MARCH, 1881 – NEW YORK, 7 APRIL, 1949)

 

 

 

 

Ignatz Waghalter was a Polish-German composer, conductor, and violinist whose career bridged late Romanticism and the early 20th-century modern opera. Born into a poor Jewish family in Warsaw, he showed exceptional musical talent at an early age. With the support of patrons, he moved to Berlin, where he studied composition and conducting, receiving decisive encouragement from the great violinist Joseph Joachim.

Waghalter quickly established himself in German musical life. He held conducting positions at major opera houses, including the Berlin Court Opera, and gained particular recognition for his interpretations of contemporary repertoire, notably the operas of Giacomo Puccini, whose works he actively promoted in Germany. As a composer, Waghalter wrote operas, orchestral works, chamber music, and songs, combining lyrical expressiveness with refined orchestration. His operas Der Teufelsweg and Jugend were especially successful before World War I.

With the rise of National Socialism in 1933, Waghalter was forced into exile because of his Jewish background. After a period in Europe, he emigrated to the United States, settling in New York. There he continued to compose and conduct and became deeply involved in projects aimed at supporting refugee musicians, including plans for a European-American opera company, though these ambitions were only partially realized.

Waghalter died in New York in 1949. Though largely forgotten after his death, his music has attracted renewed interest in recent years as part of a broader reassessment of émigré composers whose careers were disrupted by political persecution.

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1. Stanislaw Barcewicz Kujawiak Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 3 (Wieniawski) G&T 27945 3561l
2. Stanislaw Barcewicz Melodie, Op. 16, No. 2 (Paderewski) Gramophone 227957 B 2321
3. Stanislaw Barcewicz Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 Canzonetta (Tchaikovsky) G&T 27941 3557l
4. Karol Gregorowicz Air In D (Orchestra Suite No. 3, BWV 1068) (Bach) G&T 27950 7125r -12-09
5. Karol Gregorowicz Madrigal (D’ambrosio) G&T 27952 7124r -12-09
6. Karol Gregorowicz Obertass Mazurka In G, Op.19 No.1 (Wieniawski) G&T 27949 7127r -12-09
7. Karol Gregorowicz Souvenir of Moscow (Wieniawski) G&T 027900 438s -12-09
8. Karol Gregorowicz The Bee, Op.13 No.9 (Schubert) G&T 27953 7126r -12-09
9. Józef Oziminski Die Meistersinger (Wagner) Preislied Favorite 1-74520D, Warsaw 1908
10. Józef Oziminski Traviata (Verdi) Prelude to act 3 Favorite 1-74519D, Warsaw 1908
11. Ignatz Waghalter Menuet (Mozart) Cremona C4067 7100 1924
12. Ignatz Waghalter Serenade (Drdla) Cremona C4067 7099 1924
13. Ignaz Waghalter Lieder ohne Worte, No. 9 Adagio non troppo; E-dur (Mendelssohn) Parlophon 2-2629