University of Leeds

CHASE

CHASE

Henri Vieuxtemps

b. Verviers, 17.2.1820 d. Mustapha, Algeria, 6.6.1881

Teachers

For violin: his father, a violin-maker; Lecloux-Dejonc; Charles de Bériot (1828-31). Theory and Composition: Simon Sechter (1833-4); Antonín Reicha (1835-6).

Family

Lucian Vieuxtemps (1828-1901, brother), pianist and teacher; Ernest Vieuxtemps (1832-96, brother), cellist, active in England at the Royal Italian Opera and with the Hallé Orchestra; Josephine Eder (wife, died 1868), pianist. She often appeared as Henri's accompanist and sonata partner.

Biography

T. Radoux: "Henri Vieuxtemps: sa vie, ses oeuvres" Liège, 1882 (English translation, 1983).

Professional Appointments

  • Solo violin to the Tsar of Russia, 1846-52.
  • Professor, St. Petersburg Conservatoire, 1846-52.
  • Professor, Brussels Conservatoire, from 1871. (The position had been offered to him in 1866, but he declined, due to his extensive concert tours.

Associates

Vieuxtemps met Paganini in London in 1834. He'd previously met Spohr, Molique and Mayseder, and when he played the Beethoven Violin Concerto in Vienna in 1843, the performance was conducted by Edousrd von Lannoy. Other associates: Berlioz, Thalberg, Christine Neilsen, Marie Krebs, Arabella Goddard, Fétis, Hubay, Wilma Norman-Néruda (to whom he dedicated his 6th violin concerto), Servais.

Chamber Groups

Vieuxtemps performed quartets and other chamber music in Vienna, Paris, London and St Petersburg. In Vienna in the 1830s he performed with Holz and Linke, previously members of the Schuppanzigh Quartet. In London, he appeared, over a period of thirty years, with a number of different colleagues - a typical line-up, from the 1860s, is with Louis Ries, Hill, and Alfredo Piatti. In Paris, he gave a series of concerts in 1863 with Rosa Escudier-Kastner (piano), and Alexandre Batta (cello); a few years earlier, in the 1858-9 season, he appeared with Colblain, Adam and Van Gelder playing quartets by Beethoven, Cherubini and Vieuxtemps.

Pupils

Louis Ries, Eugène Ysaÿe, Franz Henri Jéhin, Prince Nicolaus Youssupov.

Editions

  • Beethoven: Romance in G, Op 40 (Schuberth, 1869).
  • Beethoven: Romance in F, Op 50 (Schuberth, 1869).
  • Beethoven: Concerto in D, Op 61 (Schuberth, 1869).