Anton de Kontski

Who was Anton de Kontski?

Anton de Kontski 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 was a singer; brother Stanislaw a pianist who taught piano in Paris and composed salon pieces; brother Apolinary 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, 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.