Janiewicz as composer
Feliks Janiewicz was an active musician for more than half a century, from 1777 to 1829, a period that spanned the development and decline of Classicism and the early stages of Romanticism. However, the Polish musicologist Jacek Berwaldt claims that the violinist's music was not influenced by the aesthetic ideals of the era. Berwaldt lists the following characteristics of Janiewcz's work:
1) Remnants of galant style, 2) elements of non-advanced classicist style, 3) strongly exposed virtuosity.
As Berwaldt notes, Janiewicz composed many of his pieces using well-known, pre-existing patterns: archaic suite patterns (siciliana in Trio No. 2), oriental elements (Chants de Juifs in Trio No. 5), quotations from Händl (aria transcription from the opera Sosarme w Trio No. 3). According to the scholar, this strategy was dictated by the violinist's self-awareness regarding the limitations of his craft as a composer, particularly in terms of melody and harmony. After all, Janiewicz was chiefly an instrumentalist. Some sources say Joseph Haydn 'briefly' taught him composition; others maintain that the two artists did plan to have lessons together, but it ultimately never happened.
According to Berwaldt, the violin parts are the strongest asset of Janiewicz's compositions – they are characterised by interesting sonorous qualities, virtuosity and an inclination for the highest registers of the instrument. These remarks pertain to violin as concert instrument; Berwaldt considered the accompaniment parts for violin uninteresting.
Some are more favourable to Janiewicz – Mieczysław Szlezer, a violinist and the author of the only monograph on Janiewicz's work, appreciated how demanding the pieces were in terms of technique and how beautiful the themes were.
Adrian Thomas, a British scholar whose main area of interest is Polish music, considered Violin Concerto No. 5 an anticipation of Mendelssohn and late 19th-century Slavic composers, such as Dvořák.
Janiewicz was the first Polish artist to write a violin concerto. In total, he composed five. Today, only three are known in entirety – No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5. Our knowledge of the Violin Concerto No. 1 in F-major, most probably written in Paris in 1790, is limited to the solo vocal part. Violin Concerto No. 3 in A major is believed to have been lost. The concertos that did survive are all characterised by the so-called brilliant style.
The ending of the Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major includes a polonaise in a rondo form. Janiewicz drew from Polish folklore more frequently in his chamber pieces (mazurka in Sonata for piano and violin in A major and Sonata for piano, violin and cello in B-flat major; polonaise in Sonata for piano, violin and cello in A major). The artist was also interested in Scottish, Italian, Swiss and Jewish traditional music.
In 1947, Andrzej Panufnik arranged Janiewicz's Divertimento for string orchestra. Panufnik came across the score of Trios for two violins and cello by Janiewicz in the archive of Polskie Wydawnictwo Muzyczne (at that time he could not have suspected that he would spend the majority of his life in Great Britain, just like the 19th-mowycentury maestro). The piece was the first in a series of works based on Polish early music (Old Polish Suite, Concerto in modo antico and Jagiellonian Triptych).
Originally written in Polish by Filip Lech, translated by Natalia Sajewicz, Nov 2021
Sources:
Mieczysław Szlezer, Feliks Janiewicz. Polski skrzypek – zapomniany przez swoich, doceniony przez obcych, Kraków 2017; Alina Nowak-Romanowicz, Klasycyzm, Warsaw 1995; Jacek Berwaldt, Życie Feliksa Janiewicza, in: Muzyka, 1966, no 3-4; Jacek Berwaldt, Twórczość Feliksa Janiewicza, in: Muzyka, 1967, no 1; Lucio Tufano, Młody Polak o zaskakującej zdolności. Feliks Janiewicz w Naepolu (1786) i Wenecji (1790), in: Muzyka, 2008, no 2; Hanna Milewska, Feliks Janiewicz - skrzypcowa ekstraklasa, HFiM 2009; Beata Bolesławska, Panufnik, Kraków 2001.