I’ve tried to write these concerti posts in a timeline order, and if not the year of the creation of the composition to be taken, but the year the composer was born in has been the basis for the order of the series. Unfortunately I want to change this a little.

This post is about Vieuxtemps, a violinist and composer even I didn’t know myself before!

Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was born in Verviers in Belgium, on 17^th of February, 1820. He had his first lessons from his father, a weaver and an amateur violin-maker and player. Vieuxtemps made his first public appearance as a violinist at the age of six, playing a concerto by Rode.Two years later he was heard in Brussels by Charles de Bèriot, who accepted him as a pupil.

It was in 1836 that Vieuxtemps wrote his first violin concerto, the Concerto No. 2 in F sharp minor, published as Opus 19. His second, concerto no.1 in E minor opus 10, was composed in his first visit to Russia in 1837. He introduced this concerto to Paris audiences in 1841 which was admired by musicians an critics, including Wagner and Berlioz.

His third concerto came after a journey to America in 1843 and 1844. 1844 also brought for Vieuxtemps marriage to Vienna-born pianist Josephine Eder.

From 1846 to 1852 he was in St Petersburg as court violinist, soloist in the Imperial Theatres and teacher, writing there his Concerto No. 4 in D minor, Opus 31, a work described by Berlioz, as a symphony with a violin solo, and a number of other compositions. After leaving Russia, he spent two years in Brussels, before settling for a time in Dreieichenhain, near Frankfurt. Vieuxtemps’s Concerto No. 5 in A minor, Opus 37, was written in the years 1858 and 1859 at the request of his fellow countryman and colleague Hubert Lèonard, a professor of the Brussels Conservatory, for a competition there. To this day the Fifth concerto, expressive and poetic in its melodies, colorful in its virtuosity and orchestration, and original in form, continues to attract violinists seeking music for concerts.

In 1866 Vieuxtemps moved with his family to Paris, continuing all the time his international career. In 1871 he returned again to Brussels, now as professor of the violin in the Conservatory. Here he devoted considerable time and energy to teaching, his work interrupted by a stroke that affected his bowing arm, making further virtuoso playing impossible. He was replaced by Wieniawski, but in 1877 resumed teaching and conducting once more. Illness led finally to his resignation in 1879, when he joined his daughter and son-in-law at Mustapha in Algeria. Here he continued to compose, completing his Concerto No. 6 in G Major, Opus 47, and soon thereafter Concerto No. 7 in A minor, Opus 49. He died in 1881 and was buried in his hometown of Verviers, Belgium.

The bulk of Vieuxtemps’s compositions were for his own instrument, including 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 and a viola sonata among other things. He also wrote three string quartets. It is because of his seven violin concertos, however, that Vieuxtemps occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school.

Through his own concertos and his advocacy of the concertos of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, he added a more classical dimension to the current violin repertoire which had tended towards technically brilliant but often shallow variations and fantasies on popular operatic themes. While the praises of Berlioz and others may now seem excessive, it must be admitted that Vieuxtemps had a good taste and was guided by true musicianship, never indulging in sheer virtuosity for its own sake like some of his predecessors. As a result, his concertos still stand comparison with those by Saint-Saëns, for example, while the concertos of Bériot, Rode and others have not stood the test of time.

Here you can download two last movements of his fifth concerto, as played by great Jascha Heifetz. This concerto is particular in the way that it goes further from the borders of traditional form of three-movement concertos and all movements are joint together, making a one-movement concerto. So I suggest you download both second and third movements and listen to them continually. The second movement can also be considered as two movements.

It’s performed by New Symphony Orchestra of London conducted by Sir Malcom Sargent and Jascha Heifetz as soloist, in 1962:

Movement Two, Cadenza-Adagio

Movement Three, Allegro con fuoco.

References: One and Two