Violinist

As an artist, I am interested in the whole of violin music from the beginning of the 16th century to modern times. I focus on playing historical instruments in the broad sense of the term. For me, a historical instrument is not only a Baroque violin, but also other instruments of bygone eras. These are Renaissance and Romantic violins, as well as viola and viola d'amore. 

The technical side of playing a historical instrument is of great significance to me. In my artistic activity, I put great emphasis on exploring the often unknown layers of violin literature, and especially works written for solo violin without accompaniment, as evidenced by my artistic work of the doctoral thesis, devoted to little-known works for solo violin of the 17th century. I am also interested in rediscovering the huge and in many cases forgotten pedagogical activity of violinists of the old eras. Tis regards the art of violin schools, to begin with the violin school of Geminiani, and caprices and etudes written in great numbers in the 18th and 19th centuries, starting with L’Arte del Violino by Locatelli. The old treatises on the instruments inspired me to create my own set of technical exercises for Baroque violinists which enable a thorough and comprehensive mastering of one’s technique. 

A very important aspect of my professional life is solo activity developing in two directions. The first direction are solo concerts with orchestra. In this area, I focus on the repertoire of Baroque, Classicism and Early Romanticism. I would like to mention the first performances on historical instruments of concerts by Feliks Janiewicz and Karol Lipiński (together with the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra) or the recording of Violin Concertos Nos. 3 and 5 by Janiewicz with the Early Instruments Ensemble of the Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense Chamber Opera under the baton of Kai Bumann. My future plans in this field include performances and a recording of violin concertos by August Duranowski and Joachim Kaczkowski. Particularly close to my heart is unknown, but certainly worth discovering Polish violin music of the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the work of such composers as Jan Baptysta Kleczyński, Basil Bohdanowicz, August Fryderyk Duranowski, Joachim Kaczkowski, Feliks Janiewicz, Apolinary Kątski, whose activity could be felicitously described as the first violin school in Poland.

The second direction of my solo activity are solo recitals and research into discovering new works for solo violin. This applies to works originally written for violin, such as compositions collected in the Klagenfurt Manuscript, the Wrocław Manuscript, or the works of such composers as Johann Schop, Thomas Baltzar, Nicola Matteis, Giuseppe Colombi, Johann Joseph Vilsmayr, and many, many others. 

Apart from performing the original violin repertoire, I attach particular importance to a practice very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, that is the art of transcription. I have transcribed a number of pieces intended for instruments other than violin, such as, for example, the lute works of Johann Sebastian Bach or the fantasies of Georg Philipp Telemann originally written for viola da gamba. These activities have significantly extended the solo violin repertoire. 

In solo performance, for me, the virtuoso idiom is extremely important, which includes late nineteenth-century solo sonatas, e.g. by Wilhelm Rust or Ivan Khandoshkin, as well as rediscovering the virtuoso caprices of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the caprices of Karol Lipiński and Niccolo Paganini. I would like to emphasize once again that my interest in this subject is closely related to historical performance using historical instruments. Performing these works, I use original 18th- or 19th-century instruments and copies of 17th-century instruments. I use gut strings produced according to early methods. In instruments dedicated to the music of the 17th century, I use the so-called constant string tension, which consists in a proportional increase in the thickness of each subsequent string. I also use various models of strings, suitable for performing music of a given era. As in the case of my concert activity, I am particularly interested in the work of Polish violinists and composers, especially Kaczkowski and Duranowski. 

For some time now, I my interest in the performance of later, nineteenth-century and even early 20th-century music, has been significantly increased, in which case I also use historical instruments. Works inspired by Baroque music, such as 6 Morceaux op. 55 by Henri Vieuxtemps 6 Sonata for solo violin op. 27 by Eugène Ysaÿe, Preludes and Fugues op. 117 by Max Reger, and others. One of my phonographic plans is to record a CD with works by contemporary Polish composers written for the Baroque violin. I incorporate into my concert repertoire such work as Quasi una partita by Szczepan Tesarowicz or Triptych for Solo by Marcin Markowicz.