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Composers

Leopold Kronenberg

1849-1937

Leopold Julian Kronenberg was born 27 July 1849 in Warsaw, died 23 February 1937 in Brzezie in Kujawy. Pseudonym Wojski. . He was a member of a well-known bourgeoisie Warsaw family,a financier, an entrepreneur, a collector and art patron, and amateur composer. He obtained his high school diploma in 1864 in the I Gimnazjum Realny in Warsaw. He studied law in Scotland and Germany and also at the agronomic school in Popelsdorf (Germany). From 1874 he was in St. Petersburg, looking after his father’s interests including as manager of the Warsaw branch of the Bank Handlowy. After his father died in 1887, Leopold Kronenberg became head of the board of railways. He held this position until nationalisation in 1912. From 1887 to 1926 he served as president of Bank Handlowy in Warsaw. He was Chairman of the Committee of the Land Credit Society, a member of the Directorate of the Fire Insurance Company, and a guardian at the Warsaw Trade School founded by his father. In 1898 he received the title of Baron of the Russian Empire. In the years of his marriage with Józefina of Reszków (1884-1891) he led a musical salon in the family palace on ul. Mazowiecka. In this location, destroyed during WWII, he collected a large number of art works. His great wealth and contacts with the Tsar’s court allowed him to support important national social initiatives. Together with Henryk Sienkiewicz and Karol Benni he brought about building the monument in Warsaw to Adam Mickiewicz in 1898. From 1899 he was involved together with Aleksander Rajchman, Stefan Lubomirski, Maurycy Zamoyski, Władysław Tyszkiewicz and Emil Młynarski in the building of the Philharmonic in Warsaw. He joined the founding committee of the Philharmonic and headed the first board of the joint-stock company „Filharmonia Warszawska", which undertook the construction of the building and organising the orchestra. He funded the organ in the Philharmonic. In 1909, along with Maurycy Zamoyski and Władysław Lubomirski, he covered a significant part of the huge debt facility. He spent The First World War in St. Petersburg. He returned to Warsaw after the revolution. In the twenty-year interwar period, together with his son Leopold Jan Kronenberg (1891-1971), he was occupied with his second passion – activities in the Towarzystwo Wyścigów Konnych (the Horse Racing Society). He spent the last years of his life on his family estate in Brzezie. He published his ‘Memoirs’ (Warsaw 1933) and a book „O muzyce i muzykach” (About Music and Musicians, Warsaw 1936). Kronenberg’s documented compositional activities date from 1899 when he conducted an orchestral waltz called „Wolne chwile” of his own authorship in one of the concerts organised in the Grand Theatre. A year later his „Scherzo symfoniczne «5/4»” was heard there conducted by Emil Młynarski. At the inaugural concert of the ‘Tuesday’ series (known as the „inteligenckich") in the newly opened Warsaw Philharmonic (6 November 1901) his cantata „Antico” to words by Or-Ot (Artur Oppman) was premiered. Two times (in the 1901-02 and 1902/03 seasons) his „Air de ballet” for two harps was performed there (published by GiW, Warsaw), and in the season 1903/04 – „Scherzo symfoniczne «5/4»”. On November 19, 1926 the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Kronenberg’s baton performed a cantata commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Henryk Sienkiewicz (the piece was published in 1927 by GiW in a piano arrangement under the title „Lamento”). At the gala concert on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Warsaw Philharmonic (February 16, 1932) the cantata "Antico" was again performed. In addition to symphonic works Kronenberg wrote chamber works and works for piano, about which there are vague references in the press, a ballet divertissement (fragments called „Halinko” were published in a piano arrangement by GiW in Warsaw in 1924), and most importantly many songs to words by well-known Polish poets. These songs gained considerable popularity in the last years before the outbreak of World War II. They were in the repertoire of outstanding Warsaw singers, including Janina Korolewicz-Waydowa and Ignacy Dygas. Kronenberg’s bibliography of published works are listed in the collections of the National Library, the Jagiellonian Library and the WTM Library. His brother Władysław Edward Kronenberg (1848-1892), also an amateur composer and author of numerous pieces, wrote under the pseudonym Władysław Wieniec, sometimes erroneously attributed to Kronenberg. Appraisal of Kronenberg’s creative work by the Warsaw critics from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are very diverse, ranging from enthusiasm, bearing the mark of social courtesy (including opinions by the Warsaw seniors: Władysław Żeleński and Adam Mühncheimer, published in "Echo Muzyczne, Teatralne i Artystyczne" in 1899 and 1900, to open criticism suggesting the composer is guilty of dilettantism (e.g., critical reviews of the cantata "Antico" after its premiere at the Warsaw Philharmonic). From today's perspective it should be said that the critics consider that Kronenberg should be placed among the talented amateurs who grace the artistic life of salons with their output. He was much more important as a patron and organiser of musical life in Warsaw, and especially as a co-founder of the Warsaw Philharmonic. In recognition of his contribution to this institution in 1937, the orchestra sponsored a scholarship-contest in Kronenberg’s name. After 1945 they did not return to this initiative.

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