Poldowski (Irène Régine Wieniawski) Essentials

“Poldowski” was in fact Irène Régine Wieniawska, youngest daughter of the Polish violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski. A slightly younger contemporary of Ravel’s, she composed many songs, many of them in a beguilingly post-Impressionist style that recalls the sensual mélodies of both Ravel and Debussy. Born in Paris, she studied piano and composition with many leading teachers of the time, including Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. She married an English ambassador in 1901, and settled in London. Just two of her songs are published under her actual name, the rest being published under the pseudonym Poldowski, partly because it was thought improper for a lady to compose for publication, and also to avoid her work being associated with her famous father. Like many of her French contemporaries, she was particularly drawn to the poetry of Paul Verlaine, and it was her song settings of these—“Cythère” and “En sourdine” are two lovely examples—which brought her fame. But she set a wide variety of other poets, including William Blake in “Reeds of Innocence”—set in charmingly pastoral style with the piano imitating a reed pipe—and Tennyson in her noble, somewhat Elgar-like setting of “O let the Hollow Ground”. She wrote chamber music, too—try the Largo for violin and piano, which starts beguilingly enough, but soon surprises with some of its harmonic turns; or the more ripely expressive Violin Sonata in D minor.