Jozef Poniatowski: Mass

[Mark Thomas]

New from Dux: Jozef Poniatowski's Mass (details at Presto here). Members may remember his Meyerbeerian opera Pierre de Médicis, still available in our Downloads board here, a tuneful and intermittently impressive piece of work.

[Alan Howe]

Recorded in Lviv, I note.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, it's a sobering thought....

[Alan Howe]

All I can say is that you can't destroy a nation's culture by pulverising its buildings and infrastructure. Its spirit lives on...

[Gareth Vaughan]

I concur, Alan.

Just a little correction though, if I may: his name is Poniatowski NOT Pontiatowski. He was a prince of a very old noble family; a relation, I believe, of Stanislaus II (Stanislaus August Poniatowski), King of Poland 1732-1798.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Gareth. Correction duly made.

[Mark Thomas]

Apologies for my error - I was away from school when they did spelling.

[eschiss1]

possibly the Prince Jozef Poniatowski, brother of Stanislav, at whose- Józef's- grave Chopin laid a wreath in 1836 when visiting the Wiecks and Voigts and on his way to Paris(Walker's Chopin biography, p.280?)

[Christopher]

Possibly this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Józef_Michał_Poniatowski?  Says he is buried in Chislehurt, Kent...

Józef Michał Poniatowski (Rome, 24 July 1814 – London, 4 July 1873) was a Polish szlachcic, a composer and an operatic tenor. He was the nephew of the Polish general Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski. He was created the 1st Conte di Monte Rotondo on 20 November 1847, and the first Principe di Monte Rotondo on 19 November 1850 by Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II.

Jozef Michal Poniatowski (Joseph Michael Xavier Francis John) was born Giuseppe Michele Saverio Francesco Giovanni Luci in Rome, the son of Stanisław Poniatowski and Cassandra Luci. He was legitimated as a son of Stanisław Poniatowski in 1847, and he became a naturalized Tuscan.

He studied music under Ceccherini at Florence. He wrote numerous operas for Italian and French theatres. Poniatowski was sent to Paris as plenipotentiary by Grand Duke Leopold II. Napoleon III made him in 1854 a senator and a naturalized French citizen.

He married Matilda Perotti (1814–1875) in 1834 at Florence. They had one son, Stanislaus August Friedrich Józef Telemach (born in Florence on 9 November 1835; died in Paris on 6 January 1908), who married Louise Le Hon, biological daughter of Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny and Fanny Mosselman, Countess Le Hon.

Poniatowski died and was buried in Chislehurst, Kent in 1873.

[eschiss1]

Still alive in 1836, I see- sorry about that!!

[Alan Howe]

Jut wondering how Poniatowski ended up in Chislehurst...

From 2014:
https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/11103247.great-nephew-of-last-king-of-poland-and-friend-of-napolean-iii-to-have-chislehurst-grave-unveiled/

After the Franco-Prussian War Poniatowski, a supporter of Napoleon III, fled to England, settling in Chislehurst with his wife. He died in July 1873.

(Napoleon III, Eugénie, their son and their entourage had been exiled after the F-P War, settling at Camden Place....
https://chislehurst-society.org.uk/chislehurst-galleries/camden-place/
...a large three-story country house in the village of Chislehurst, Kent, a half-hour by train from London. He was received by Queen Victoria, who also visited him at Chislehurst. He died in January 1873.)

[Gareth Vaughan]

I wonder too. However did he end up there?

[Alan Howe]

I've just expanded my previous post...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Ah... Thank you, Alan. A fitting retirement.

[Alan Howe]

Yes, I thought so too.