Józef Wieniawski was the younger brother of the more famous violinist/composer Henryk. Like his brother, he was born in Lublin and studied in Paris where he took first prize in piano at the Paris Conservatory at the age of twelve in 1849. He settled in Warsaw and became the second director of the Warsaw Musical Society until in his later life he moved to Brussels to teach at the conservatory. Wieniawski’s music was once described by one of his contemporaries as being ‘full of original ideas’, but at the same time ‘dry and pensive’. His
Étude Op 44 No 22 is virtuosic and Chopinesque.
from notes by Joseph A Herter © 2011
