Henri Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century. He is also known for playing upon what is now known as the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, a violin of superior workmanship. He received his first violin instruction from his father and a local teacher and gave his first public performance at the age of six, playing a concerto by Pierre Rode. Soon he was giving concerts in various surrounding cities, including Liège and Brussels where he met the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot, with whom he began studies. In 1829, Bériot took him to Paris where he made a successful concert debut, again with a concerto by Rode, but he had to return the next year because of the July Revolution and Bériot’s marriage to his mistress Maria Malibran and departure on concert tour. Back in Brussels, Vieuxtemps continued developing his violin technique on his own, his musicianship deepened by playing with the deeply musical mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot, Malibran’s sister. A tour of Germany in 1833 brought friendship with Louis Spohr and with Robert Schumann, who compared the boy to Niccolò Paganini. But he had aspirations of becoming a composer as well and, having already taken lessons with the respected Simon Sechter in Vienna, spent the winter of 1835–1836 studying composition with Anton Reicha in Paris. His first violin concerto, later published as Concerto No. 2, dates from this time. He was particularly admired in Russia where he resided permanently between 1846 and 1851 as a court musician of Tsar Nicholas I and soloist in the Imperial Theatre. He founded the violin school of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and guided the formation of a "Russian school" of violinists. In 1871, he returned to his native country to accept a professorship at the Brussels Conservatory, where his most illustrious pupil was Eugène Ysaÿe. A paralytic stroke disabled his right arm two years later and he moved to Paris again, his violin class being taken over by Henryk Wieniawski. Although he seemed to be gradually recovering from his stroke, another one in 1879 ended his career as a violinist for good. The bulk of Vieuxtemps’s compositions were for his own instrument, including seven concertos and a variety of short salon pieces, though towards the end of his life, when he had to give up the violin, he often turned to other instruments, writing two cello concertos, a viola sonata and three string quartets among other things. It is because of his seven violin concertos, however, that Vieuxtemps is generally known to audiences and musicians around the world. Through his own concertos and his advocacy of the concertos of Beethoven (he also played Beethoven’s sonatas and string quartets) and Mendelssohn, he added a more classical dimension to the violin repertoire which had tended towards technically brilliant but often shallow variations and fantasies on popular operatic themes. Vieuxtemps never indulged in sheer virtuosity for its own sake, like some of his predecessors.
for: Violin, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246860
Edition Schott
for: Viola
Music score
Item no.: 749954
for: Violin, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 796915
for: Violin, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 796911
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 1136465
op. 32/2
for: Violin, piano
Item no.: 555230
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 197875
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 1008817
Vieuxtemp's Concert No. 5
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 240879
for: Tuba (B flat), guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303506
for: Oboe, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303556
for: Clarinet, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303554
for: Bass clarinet, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303552
for: bass clarinet, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303551
for: Bassoon, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303549
for: Baritone saxophone, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303534
for: Trumpet, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303532
for: Horn (E-flat), guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303527
for: Violin, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303518
for: Viola, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303517
for: Cello, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303515
for: Oboe, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246898
for: bass clarinet, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246893
for: Bassoon, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246892
for: Tenor saxophone, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246877
for: Tuba (B-flat), piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246848
Yankee Doodle Variations for Violin & Piano
for: Violin, piano
Book
Item no.: 1005174
für Fagott und Klavier
(original für Viola und Klavier)
for: Bassoon, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 674703
for: Violin, orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 796914
op. 7/3
for: Violin, piano
Music score
Item no.: 1209157
Ausgabe für Violine und Klavier
for: Violin, piano
Piano reduction, Solo part(s)
Item no.: 360222
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 492918
for Violin and Orchestra
Edition for Violin and Piano
for: Violin, piano
Piano score, solo part
Item no.: 404422
for: Descant (soprano) recorder, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303548
for: Alto saxophone, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303538
Tuba in C Solo
for: Tuba & String Quintet
Sheet music
Item no.: 1312228
for: Flute, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246899
for: Trumpet, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246874
for: Viola, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246857
for: Double bass, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246854
Ausgabe für Violine und Klavier
for: Violin, piano
Piano reduction, Solo part(s)
Item no.: 360224
for: Flute, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303557
for: Clarinet, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303553
for: Tenor recorder, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303543
for: Bass recorder, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303542
for: Alto trombone, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1303525
for: Piccolo, guitar
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246901
for: Bass clarinet, piano [organ]
Sheet music
Item no.: 1246894