Back from obscurity: Emil Łapczyński (1837–1863). Concert artist, composer, insurgent

Abstract History is the science of humanity, and human memory, functioning as an unwritten source of knowledge, is one of its main research tools. Memory stores, selects and reveals, but it can also be fleeting—that is why filling its empty spaces is one of the most important tasks of researchers dealing with culture and the realities of the past. One of the “blank pages” in the history of Polish pianism is the oeuvre of Emil Łapczyński—a virtuoso who occupied leading spots in nineteenth-century newspapers and was compared with Józef Elsner or Henryk Wieniawski. In order to bring him back from obscurity, the present author has conducted extensive research, using source materials (birth and death certificates, tsarist decrees, diaries, tombstone inscriptions), press articles and archives (manuscript collections of the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg). The analysis of these sources has revealed a multidimensional profile of a virtuoso and composer who gave concerts in the largest halls of Europe (Vienna, Prague, Warsaw, Kraków, Lviv, Riga, St. Petersburg), but also a victim of a family tragedy and historical events that put an end to his career and life.