Violin Concerto No. 2 in d minor, Op. 22

• Wieniawski composed this concerto in 1862, during a busy and productive period based in St. Petersburg from 1860-1872. He had moved there at the invitation of Anton Rubinstein, who desired his help to create a strong musical culture in that city.¹
  • In St. Petersburg, Wieniawski served as solo violinist to the Tsar, professor of violin at the Rubinsteins’ new St. Petersburg Conservatory, and leader of the Russian Musical Society’s Orchestra and String Quartet. 
• Wieniawski played the concerto’s premier on November 27, 1862 in St. Petersburg. Nicolai Rubinstein was the conductor.²
• Wieniawski dedicated this concerto to “his friend, Pablo de Sarasate.”³

Movements 

1. Allegro moderato 
2. Romance 
3. Finale à la Zingara⁴

1. Boris Schwarz and Zofia Chechlińska, “Wieniawski family,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 12, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000030284.
2. “Violin Concerto No. 2, Op.22 (Wieniawski, Henryk),” IMSLP, accessed October 12, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_No.2%2C_Op.22_(Wieniawski%2C_Henri). 
3. Henryk Wieniawski, Second Concerto pour le Violon (Mainz: Schotts Sohne, 1879).
4. Ibid.