ANAKLASIS / katalog / Heritage / ANA 043
CD / 11.09.2026
Oleh Krysa - violin
Robert Satanowski - conductor
Roman Totenberg - violin
Stanisław Wisłocki - conductor
ANA 043
Violin Concertos
‘As in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons…’—after the Chopin Competition comes the Wieniawski Competition. The musical world abhors a vacuum. So does the record industry: we delight in new releases and dazzling young virtuosos, including the young violinists soon to take the stage in Poznań. Yet we do not forget the past, either. After all, today’s giants, too, once had to take their first steps.
The Ukrainian violinist Oleh Krysa (b. 1942, now an American citizen), a pupil of David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory, took second prize at the 1962 Wieniawski Competition. He was twenty years old. Together with third-prize winner Krzysztof Jakowicz, he found himself eclipsed by the star of that year’s event, the American winner Charles Treger. All the same, Krysa’s own career went from strength to strength. He spent a decade as first violinist of the celebrated Beethoven String Quartet before moving to the United States with his family in 1989, where he has pursued a busy international career as both performer and teacher.
Roman Totenberg (1911–2012) never competed in Poznań, but he served on the jury three times—in 1977, 1981 and 1991. An outstanding violinist, he studied with Carl Flesch and George Enescu and shared the concert platform with Karol Szymanowski and Artur Rubinstein. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, he emigrated to the United States, which became his second home.
These mid-twentieth-century recordings of Henryk Wieniawski’s two violin concertos, in performances by Krysa and Totenberg, have an undeniable allure. Their distinctive atmosphere and elegance remain utterly compelling—not least through the artistry of the distinguished conductors Robert Satanowski and Stanisław Wisłocki. Style, character, charm: they have them all. Today, of course, one can go ‘faster, higher, and better’. But to what end?
The albums in the HERITAGE series bear witness to an age now irretrievably gone. The finest interpretations, fortunately, are timeless. They remain with us for ever.
The Ukrainian violinist Oleh Krysa (b. 1942, now an American citizen), a pupil of David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory, took second prize at the 1962 Wieniawski Competition. He was twenty years old. Together with third-prize winner Krzysztof Jakowicz, he found himself eclipsed by the star of that year’s event, the American winner Charles Treger. All the same, Krysa’s own career went from strength to strength. He spent a decade as first violinist of the celebrated Beethoven String Quartet before moving to the United States with his family in 1989, where he has pursued a busy international career as both performer and teacher.
Roman Totenberg (1911–2012) never competed in Poznań, but he served on the jury three times—in 1977, 1981 and 1991. An outstanding violinist, he studied with Carl Flesch and George Enescu and shared the concert platform with Karol Szymanowski and Artur Rubinstein. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, he emigrated to the United States, which became his second home.
These mid-twentieth-century recordings of Henryk Wieniawski’s two violin concertos, in performances by Krysa and Totenberg, have an undeniable allure. Their distinctive atmosphere and elegance remain utterly compelling—not least through the artistry of the distinguished conductors Robert Satanowski and Stanisław Wisłocki. Style, character, charm: they have them all. Today, of course, one can go ‘faster, higher, and better’. But to what end?
The albums in the HERITAGE series bear witness to an age now irretrievably gone. The finest interpretations, fortunately, are timeless. They remain with us for ever.
Oleh Krysa - violin
Robert Satanowski - conductor
Roman Totenberg - violin
Stanisław Wisłocki - conductor
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VIOLIN CONCERTOS
