WIENIAWSKI - Scherzo-Tarantella

Henryk Wieniawski: Carmen Fantasy
Sydney Lee, cello
Ying Li, piano
Performed on Monday, December 11, 2017
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia
Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) was a Polish violinist and composer. A precocious talent, he was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire at age 8. Later, once his solo career was underway, he moved to St. Petersburg at the invitation of Anton Rubinstein, and taught there for 12 years. Following a two-year tour of the United States, Wieniawski took a position as violin professor at the Conservatoire Royal in Brussells in 1875; he died five years later of a heart attack.
Wieniawiski wrote the Scherzo-Tarantella for violin and piano, op. 16, in 1855. The unusual title of the work suggests the combination of two distinct genres: the jocose symphonic movement of the scherzo, and the Italian folk dance of the tarantella. Wieniawski’s invocation of the latter may have been inspired by Chopin’s Tarantella, op. 43 (1841), which had been transcribed for violin and piano by Karol Lipiński. Originally composed for violin and orchestra, the Scherzo-Tarantella has been transcribed for many different ensembles; the version for cello and piano is among the most often performed.