The Edinburgh Reporter December 2021

8 NEWS
Polish piano
comes back to
square one
International politicians at the Botanics
Delegates dig in
World leaders promote biodiversity at Royal Botanic Garden
By OLIVIA JAMES
DURING COP26, while the eyes of the world
were on Glasgow, international delegations from
Nepal, Malawi and the Ivory Coast were also
addressing the impact of the biodiversity crisis
and climate emergency at the Royal Botanic
Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).
Welcomed by Simon Milne, MBE, Regius
Keeper and teams of scientists and
horticulturists, the global leaders planted trees,
symbolising the development and growth of
these important global partnerships.
Returning from the World Leaders Summit in
Glasgow, Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur
Deuba and the Minister for Forests and
Environment Ramsahay Prasad Yadav, met with
Simon Milne MBE, Regius Keeper and Dominic
Fry, Chair of the Board of Trustees.
At the centre of the Himalaya, Nepal is classed
as a Global Biodiversity Hotspot. Home to a
third of all Himalayan species, its ecosystems are
crucial to all life across Asia and sustain the
everyday needs of Nepal’s largely rural
population. However, the country is experiencing
alarmingly rapid melting of glaciers and snow
cover of the Himalayan mountains as part of the
increasing frequency of extreme weather events.
Having worked in the region for more than
200 years, over the last two decades, RBGE has
become a yet closer partner of the Nepal
government and its key environmental agencies.
The quest is to help Nepali partners build their
own ability to undertake plant biodiversity
research and to scientifically document the
natural capital of their country. The Flora of
Nepal is the first comprehensive record of the
estimated 7,000 species of flowering plants and
ferns found in Nepal.
The Garden also welcomed His Excellency,
President Lazarus Chakwera, President of the
Republic of Malawi in a celebration of the
long-standing friendship between the country
and RBGE.
During their visit, the President and First
Lady Mrs Monica Chakwera planted a
Widdringtonia whytei or Mlanje cedar, a species
of conifer found only in Malawi. Now critically
endangered in the wild, the cedar was grown
from seed collected in 2019 as part of RBGE’s
International Conifer Conservation Programme.
Ivory Coast delegation
Historic preserved specimens of the species
Aframomum, originally from the Ivory Coast,
helped to illustrate the work of the Herbarium
when the Honourable Mr Alan Donwahi,
Minister of Water and Forests, Republic of the
Ivory Coast and Her Excellency, Madame Sara
Amani, Ambassador of the Ivory Coast in the
United Kingdom, visited RBGE.
On their first visit to the Garden, the
delegation discussed possible projects and hopes
for the creation of a new partnership between
RBGE and the Ivory Coast.
At RBGE, scientists and horticulturists are
building a global network of people to help
conserve the planet’s natural capital and enable
the sustainable use of plants. Visits by leaders
during COP26 help to strengthen these crucial
international collaborations.
The President and
First Lady of Malawi
A SQUARE piano owned by musician Felix
Yaniewicz has been restored and brought
home to Edinburgh to the Polish Ex-
Combatants House on Drummond Place.
Yaniewicz lived nearby on Great King
Street until he died in 1848.
Yaniewicz is credited with founding the
first Edinburgh Music Festival in 1815. He
led the orchestra in an ambitious
programme featuring Haydn’s Creation,
Handel’s Messiah, and symphonies and
concertos by Mozart and Beethoven.
Later he was Edinburgh’s chief concert
promoter, establishing a series of morning
chamber music concerts. Today,
Yaniewicz’s music is little known outside
Poland, despite his impact on British
musical life – his numerous compositions,
most notably the 5 violin concertos,
significantly contributed to the repertoire
of the Georgian period.
The piano dates from around 1810.
Above the keyboard, a cartouche with
painted flowers and musical instruments
bears the label Yaniewicz and Green with
the addresses of premises in fashionable
areas of London and Liverpool.
Inside the piano, a signature in Indian
ink has been matched with those on the
marriage certificate and surviving letters of
Felix Yaniewicz.
The piano was found by a descendant of
the musician, Josie Dixon, who noticed an
advert for the newly restored piano which
had turned up 20 years earlier in a private
house in Snowdonia. Then in a dilapidated
condition, it was bought by the early
keyboard expert Douglas Hollick, who
painstakingly restored it to its former glory.
Yaniewicz’s style was a unique fusion of
classical influences from Haydn and
Mozart, with elements of Polish folk music.
His early career took him all over Europe to
Paris, but he was forced to flee because of
the French Revolution. He sought refuge in
Britain and began performing in
Edinburgh in 1804.
The project to bring the piano back to
the capital has been paid for by The
Friends of Felix Yaniewicz in partnership
with the Scottish Polish Cultural
Association. Music and Migration in
Georgian Edinburgh: The Story of Felix
Yaniewicz is planned for summer 2022.The
piano will be the centrepiece of this
exhibition at the Georgian House.
www.yaniewicz.org