Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego

HIRE LIBRARY CATALOG WEBSHOP PBM

Composers

Jan Wański

1762-po 1821

Wański Jan, *2 VI 1756 Bukowiec Górny (near Leszno), †circa 1830 Poznań, Polish violinist and composer. Source research has slightly supplemented very general biographical data, which Jan Nepomucen, Jan Wański’s son passed to W. Sowiński (See Słownik muzyków polskich...). Jan Wański worked in Wielkopolska, mainly in Poznań (also Sarnowa near Rawicz, Święciechowa, Wschowa). At the end of 1799 he visited the estate of his sister Franciszka in Sarnowa and gave concerts in the local church in a duet with his brother Roch († 1808 probably in Moszków near Lviv), an acclaimed ‘cellist at the court of Count F. Polanowski in Moszków. During his stay he probably composed three duets for violin and ‘cello. Jan and Roch persuaded his nephew, K. Kurpiński (then organist at the church), to leave Sarnowa; thanks to Roch’s protection, Kurpiński became a second violinst in governor Polanowski’s court orchestra in 1800. In the 1780s Jan Wański composed two operas: Pasterz nad Wisłą and Kmiotek (with J. Wybicki), performed several times in the Wybicki residence in Manieczki, and also at the Turno family manor in Radomick (1786, during the Christmas and at Easter 1787). He wrote religious works for the Parish Church in Poznan, the church in Grodzisk Wielkopolski, the Cistercians in Obra and Przemęt, and the Oratorians in Gostyń. In the years 1788-1809 he also composed for the cathedral band in Gnieźno (including three symphonies and a Requiem).