Henryk was born in the Polish city of Lublin, the son of a Jewish barber Wolf Helman. It was perhaps a sign of difficult times for the Jewish community that Wolf changed his name to the more Polish sounding Tadeusz Wieniawski and converted to Catholicism. All in an effort to fit in.
Another child prodigy, Henrykâs talent for the violin was recognised at the tender age of 9 when he was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire. Here he studied under the Belgian maestro Lambert Massart. He published his first work at the age of 12 and by 1860 no less a maestro than Anton Rubenstein had taken him under his wing.
He used his music to good effect for his personal life too. When the parents of his intended blocked his engagement, he wrote a piece of music that swayed them and he married Isabella Hampton in 1860.
His fame as a composer rests largely on two highly demanding violin concertos one of which you can hear below.
Sadly today his work is not heard very often outside of his native Poland.