Karol Józef Lipiński: Violin Concerto No.4 Op.32 in A Major, Albrecht Breuninger (violin)

Karol Józef Lipiński - Violin Concerto No. 4 Op. 32 In A Major (one mov.), Albrecht Breuninger (violin), Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wojciech Rajski (conductor) Karol Józef Lipiński (30 October 1790 - 16 December 1861) was a Polish violinist, composer and conductor. Born in 1790 in Radzyń he seems to have had one teacher only - his father - and no conservatoire training. The rumour that he had been Paganini’s pupil was discounted by Lipiński himself in one of his few comments to the press in 1829. He was a concertmaster in Lvov (Lviv, Lemberg) when still a teenager, a five-year stint followed by an Italian sojourn when he certainly met and performed with Paganini. However, he went so far explicitly to disclaim the ‘Polish Paganini’ appellation, noting that he would have been honoured to have been a pupil, had it been so, but that he played in a very different manner. What emerges from Lipiński’s article and indeed from another one recounting his later meetings with Paganini are a fine eye for detail and a remarkable modesty and honesty of expression. He was later active as a concertmaster in Germany where he was admired by Schumann and Berlioz. He wasn’t very charitable about Ferdinand David, Mendelssohn’s friend and the Leipzig leader, but then they both vied for the same job, which David won. Come to that, he wasn’t especially nice about Mendelssohn. In June 1839 he received a double appointment in Dresden, as concertmaster of the Royal Oratory and kapellmeister at the court chapel. With his Dresden duties, he ceased touring as a virtuoso, but concentrated on chamber music, with a special devotion to the string quartets of Beethoven. Here he also gave a joint recital with Liszt, performing Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. His rheumatic fever made him reduce his concert activities from 1846. Upon his retirement in 1861, he moved to his estate in Urlov near Lviv and founded a music school for talented peasant children there. Lipiński developed a great reputation as the only serious rival to Paganini. Henryk Wieniawski dedicated his Polonaise de concert, Op.4 to Lipiński, like Ignacy Feliks Dobrzyński his String Quartet No. 2, Op.40. Naturally, most of Lipiński's compositions are for violin. These include four violin concertos, two string trios (originally for an ensemble 2 violins and a cello) as well as polonaises, rondos, variations, capriccios. He also composed several songs and harmonized some popular Polish tunes. However that may be, it’s a shame that Lipiński’s music has been so eclipsed. It’s a shame too that he, possibly by virtue of his long immersion in German musical culture, has been largely ignored as a precursor of the emergent later nineteenth-century Polish violin school. (excerpts from notes by Jonathan Woolf)