Wykonania muzyki Władysława Żeleńskiego w Wiedniu
Władysław Żeleński and the performances of his musical pieces in Vienna

Summary/Abstract: Very interesting yet utterly unknown threads in the biography of Władyslaw Żeleński are his numerous attempts to gain the international recognition (1837–1921). One of the major musical centers in which Żeleński was promoting his musical output turned out to be, apart from Prague, Vienna – the city which was remaining, in the popular consciousness, “the musical capital” of Central Europe and politically – the capital of Cisleithania (the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary). The article is devoted to the performances of Władyslaw Żeleński’s musical pieces in Vienna. The author has adopted as the beginning of the story the premiere of Sechs Charakterstücke Op. 17 for piano, which took place on December 21, 1871. The essay explains the causes of the manifest failure of Polish music (as well as Władyslaw Żeleński’s one) at the famous Exhibition for Music and the Drama, which took place during the summer and early autumn 1892. It deals also with his so-called “rehabilitative concerts” dating from 1893 and being the direct reaction to this failure, as well as with the presence of his works on Viennese stages during the World War I and the interwar period. Further on are mentioned, as a sort of peripheral comment, the expectations of Western critics towards Polish (and more broadly: Slavic) composers. The article enables us to understand the difficult situation of those Slavic composers who decided to achieve artistic and commercial success in Vienna in the period of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

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