Henryk Wieniawski - Chamber Works Mikołaj Zgółka & Piotr Pawlak

• Henryk Wieniawski (1835 - 1880): Obertas. Mazurka, op. 19 no. 1:
• 1 Wieniawski: Obertas. Mazurka, op. 19 no. 1 02:12
• Allegro de Sonate (Presto), op. 2:
• 2 Wieniawski: Allegro de Sonate (Presto), op. 2 07:27
• Kuiawiak. 2de Mazurka:
• 3 Wieniawski: Kuiawiak. 2de Mazurka 03:21
• Fantaisie Orientale, op. 24 (oeuvre posth.):
• 4 Wieniawski: Fantaisie Orientale, op. 24 (oeuvre posth.) 04:04
• Souvenir de Posen. Mazurka – Caractéristique, op. 3:
• 5 Wieniawski: Souvenir de Posen. Mazurka – Caractéristique, op. 3 03:51
• Légende, op. 17:
• 6 Wieniawski: Légende, op. 17 06:30
• Gigue, op. 23:
• 7 Wieniawski: Gigue, op. 23 03:10
• Fantaisie brillante sur des motifs de l ‘opéra “Faust” de Gounod, op. 20:
• 8 Wieniawski: Fantaisie brillante sur des motifs de l ‘opéra “Faust” de Gounod, op. 20 18:23
• Total Runtime 48:58

Info for Henryk Wieniawski - Chamber Works

The choice of pieces is purely subjective, aiming to showcase different stages of Wieniawski’s compositional development — from the youthful Allegro de Sonate, written with his brother Joseph and dedicated to Stanisław Moniuszko, to the late Fantaisie Orientaleand Gigue. (...) Wieniawski inspired his contemporaries and continues to fascinate today; his oeuvre remains a touchstone of violin mastery.

With modern advances in technique, equipment, and pedagogy, his works are increasingly accessible. Yet, it is essential to remember the conditions under which Wieniawski functioned: performing on gut strings, constantly traveling, meeting Europe’s most influential figures, admired by some and hated by others, competing with ventriloquists and comedians, and yet encountering legends like Franz Liszt, Charles de Bériot, Richard Wagner, Karol Lipiński, and Stanisław Moniuszko. A father, aman swayed by passions and temptations, afflicted by arthritis before his forties — a genius, virtuoso, and enduring inspiration. (Mikołaj Zgółka)

Mikolaj Zgolka, violin
Piotr Pawlak, piano

Mikołaj Zgółka
He studied at universities in Poland, Switzerland and Ger­many. As a soloist and chamber musician, he won prizes in national and international competitions. Historical perform­ance is in the centre of his interests, with particular emphasis on violin music at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, chamber music of the second half of the 18th century and early Romanticism.

He is a member of the Dresdner Festspieleorchester (Germany), Anima Eterna Brugge (Belgium), the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra and the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble. He has collaborated with many early music ensembles in Poland and abroad, such as Bach Collegium Japan, Collegium Musicum Stuttgart, Berlin Baroque and Gabrieli Consort & Players.

He has established regular cooperation with the Witold Lutosławski National Forum of Music in Wrocław, also as a soloist. He is a concertmaster and initiator of the Polish-German ensemble Pohlnische Capelle, whose ac­tivity focuses on reviving the culture and music of the Saxon court in Dresden and Warsaw.

The artist has taken part in several dozen recordings, published among others in Deutsche Grammophon (under Kristian Zimerman), APARTÉ, ACCENT, Naxos, DUX, CD Accord, s; in 2019 his album with premiere recordings of the Carl Höckh violin sonatas was released, honoured with the Pizzicato Supersonic Award 2019 (Luxembourg) and a nomination for the 2020 International Classical Music Awards. In 2020, the CD Accord label and the National Forum of Music released the premiere recording of Józef Elsner's string quartets - Trois quatuors du meilleur goût polonois op. 1.

He is a Doctor of Art and teaches a historical violin class at the I.J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań. Since 2019, he has been Director of the Instrumental Studies Institute at this conservatory. He also teaches theoretical subjects, including music rhetoric, a new subject in higher music education. Since 2019, he has served as director of the university's Institute of Instrumental Music.

In 2022 he was awarded the medal "Meritorious for Culture Gloria Artis".

Mikołaj Zgółka plays an Aegidius Kloz violin from 1793 and a copy of Antonio Stradivari made by Marco Minozzi (2022).

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