Anton de Kontski (25 September 18167 December 1899) was a Polish pianist and composer. He was also known as Antoni Kątski and Antoine de Kontski, sometimes with the appellation "Chevalier."
Life and career
Born in
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, Anton de Kontski was one of five children, all musical. His sister Eugenia (b. 1816) was a singer; brother Stanislaw (b. 1820) a pianist who taught piano in Paris and composed salon pieces; brother
Apolinary Apolinary or Apollinary is a masculine given name. People who bear the name include:
* Apollinary Goravsky (1833–1900) was a Belarusian painter
* Apolinary Hartglas (1883–1953), Polish Jewish lawyer and Zionist activist
* Apolinary Kątski, bir ...
(1825–1879) a virtuoso violinist, composer and teacher who debuted at age five at the St. Petersburg court, studied with
Paganini, toured Europe, and finally settled in Warsaw where in 1860 he founded the Music Institute; and brother Karol (1815–1867), violinist and composer, member of the orchestra of the
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Paris opera company which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with – and for a time took the name of – its chief rival, the Comédie-Italienne ...
in Paris.
Anton himself was a pianist and composer, a student of
John Field John Field may refer to:
*John Field (American football) (1886–1979), American football player and coach
*John Field (brigadier) (1899–1974), Australian Army officer
*John Field (composer) (1782–1837), Irish composer
*John Field (dancer) (192 ...
in Moscow and a child prodigy. He also studied composition with
Simon Sechter
Simon Sechter (11 October 1788 – 10 September 1867) was an Austrian music theorist, teacher, organist, conductor and composer. He was one of the most prolific composers who ever lived, although his music is largely forgotten and he is now mainl ...
and piano with
Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.
Family
He was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 January 1812. According to his own account, h ...
in Vienna. In 1845, in Paris, he performed in a concert at the Czartoryski salon together with
Chopin. In 1849, he appeared in concerts in Spain and Portugal. Kontski reorganized the National Conservatory in Lisbon and for his efforts was awarded for the
Order of Immaculate Conception. In the years 1851–1853, Kontski resided in Berlin, where he served as the court pianist to the King of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
. At that time, he gave concerts in Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Italy. In the years 1854–1867 he lived in St. Petersburg, where he organized an Amateur Music Society. He subsequently spent 16 years in London. Kontski settled in the United States in 1883 and resided first in
Buffalo, NY, then in
Grand Rapids, MI
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1892.
He was also something of a showman: he advertised himself as the only living pupil of
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
and used to play at least one piece in each concert with his hands under a folded blanket placed on the keyboard. In 1896, when de Kontski was visiting pianist with the Wellington Orchestral Society in New Zealand, the conductor
Alfred Hill resigned in protest at this trick, which he considered
charlatan
A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through false pretenses, pretense or deception. Synonyms for ''charlatan ...
ry.
Two years before his death he embarked on a world tour, giving concerts in California, Macau, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Persia, and many provinces of the Russian Empire. He was the first classical pianist to give concerts in the Philippines. He was also the first musician to transcribe Azerbaijani folk music into Western notation.
His piece entitled ''Polish Patrol'' was published in Los Angeles in 1895 by The Barlett Music Co. with a portrait of the composer on the cover, and his ''Awaking of the Lion'' was very popular in 1870s California. A sign of his popularity is the fact that ''
The Etude'' used his ''Dance des sorcières'' as their first title when they began publishing sheet music in 1883. They also published his ''Persian March'', Op. 369 in the December 1891 issue of the magazine.
Discography
*2017: Piano Works vol. 1 (
Slawomir Dobrzanski, piano) – Acte Préalable AP038
*2018: Piano Works vol. 2 (
Slawomir Dobrzanski, Sławomir Dobrzański, Agustin Muriago - piano) – Acte Préalable AP0424
References
Sources
Theodore Presser biography
External links
*
ttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/cocoon/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100001941/default.html Sheet music to "Awakening the Lion," Library of Congress*
Scores by Anton de Kontskiin digital library
Polona
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kontski, Anton de
1817 births
1899 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century classical pianists
19th-century male musicians
Polish classical pianists
Male classical pianists
Polish composers
Polish male classical composers
Polish Romantic composers