Born: 1835, Lublin, Poland Died: 1880, Moscow, Russia Period: Romantic

Wieniawski came from a musical family, and he entered the Paris Conservatory as an eight-year-old. He won the first prize there for violin and graduated by the time he was 11. He was one of the 19th century’s leading violinists, and he composed most of his music for his own concerts. He died from heart failure at the age of 44, leaving behind a collection of demanding works fluently written for the violin, including his Hungarian-flavored Second Violin Concerto.

Selected works:

Violin Concerto No. 1 (1853)

L’école moderne (solo violin, 1854)

Légende for violin and orchestra

(c. 1860)

Études-caprices (solo violin, c. 1863)

Fantasie brillante on themes from Gounod’s Faust (violin and orchestra, c. 1868)