Anton de Kontski

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Cover of sheet music for "Awakening the Lion"

Anton de Kontski (1817–1899) was a Polish pianist and composer. He was also known as Antoni Kątski and Antoine de Kontski, sometimes with the appellation "Chevalier."

Anton de Kontski was one of five children, all musical. His sister Eugenia (b. 1816) was a singer; brother Stanislaw (1820-?) a pianist who taught piano in Paris and composed salon pieces; brother Apolinary (1825-1879) a virtuoso violinist, composer and teacher who debuted at five at the St. Petersburg court, studied with Paganini, toured Europe, and finally settled in Warsaw where in 1860 he founded the Music Institute; and brother Karol (1815-1867), violinist and composer, member of the orchestra of the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Anton himself was a pianist and composer, a student of John Field in Moscow and a child prodigy. He was also something of a showman: he advertised himself as the only living pupil of Beethoven and used to play at least one piece in each concert with his hands under a folded blanket placed on the keyboard. In 1896, when de Kontski was visiting pianist with the Wellington Orchestral Society in New Zealand, the conductor Alfred Hill resigned in protest at this trick which he considered charlatanry.[1]

Two years before his death he embarked on a world tour, giving concerts in California and the Far East. His piece entitled "Polish Patrol" was published in Los Angeles in 1895 by The Barlett Music Co. with a portrait of the composer on the cover, and his "Awaking the Lion" was very popular in 1870s California. A sign of his popularity is the fact that The Etude used his "Dance des Sorcières" as their first title when they began publishing sheet music in 1883.