Something to smile about: Postcard from Poznań

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Poznań, the beautiful Polish city midway between Warsaw and Berlin, is rather taken with Wieniawski, although the celebrated violinist doesn’t seem to have spent much time there. There is a street named after him, there are various plaques, and if you fly there you arrive at Poznań–Ławica Henryk Wieniawski Airport. Since 1952 it has also been the home of the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, whose inaugural event in Warsaw in 1935 famously had Ginette Neveu and David Oistrakh as first and second prize winners. I went there in autumn 2022 to attend a portion of its 16th edition (7–21 October).

Poznań is a graceful city, with a lot of fine Baroque architecture at its centre (and some marvellous buildings that are not as old as they look) and at its heart the Old Market Square (above), with a splendid town hall complete with loggias, a spire and a pair of mechanical goats that appear through a hatch above the clock each midday to have twelve little fights while a trumpeter plays a fanfare…