Charles de Bériot
Encyclopedia
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and composer.
Biography
Born in LeuvenLeuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...
, where there is now a street named in his honour, he moved to France in 1810, where he studied violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
with Jean-François Tiby, a pupil of Giovanni Battista Viotti
Giovanni Battista Viotti
Giovanni Battista Viotti was an Italian violinist whose virtuosity was famed and whose work as a composer featured a prominent violin and an appealing lyrical tunefulness...
. He was later encouraged by Viotti himself and briefly worked with Baillot
Pierre Baillot
Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot was a French violinist and composer.Baillot was born in Passy and studied the violin under Giovanni Battista Viotti...
but did not embrace all their teachings and was also influenced by Paganini
Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
. He served as chamber violinist to King Charles X of France
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
and to King William I of the Netherlands
William I of the Netherlands
William I Frederick, born Willem Frederik Prins van Oranje-Nassau , was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg....
and toured with great success to London, Paris and the great music centres of Europe. In addition to playing the violin, he was a virtuosic pianist who toured through much of China despite the emperor's objections.
Bériot lived together with the opera singer Maria Malibran
Maria Malibran
The mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran , was one of the most famous opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality and dramatic intensity, becoming a legendary figure after her death at age 28...
and had a child with her in 1833 (Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot
Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot
Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot was a French pianist, teacher and composer.He was born in Paris in 1833, the son of the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot and his then common-law wife, the famed soprano Maria Malibran Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot (12 February 183322 October 1914) was a French pianist,...
, a piano professor who taught Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
, Ricardo Viñes
Ricardo Viñes
Ricardo Viñes was a Spanish pianist. He first publicly performed many important works by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Manuel de Falla, Déodat de Séverac and Isaac Albéniz. He was also the piano teacher of composer Francis Poulenc and pianist Léo-Pol Morin.He was born in Lleida,...
, Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
and others). They were married in 1836 when Malibran obtained an annulment of her previous marriage. Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
wrote an aria accompanied by a solo violin especially for the couple. However, Malibran died the same year from injuries sustained in a fall from a horse.
After Malibran's death, de Bériot lived in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, playing little in public. In 1841, however, he went on tour in Germany, where he met and married Marie Huber, daughter of a magistrate of Vienna.
She was an orphan who had been adopted by Prince von Dietrichstein, the natural father of Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg
Sigismond Thalberg was a composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.- Descent and family background :...
. Marie and de Bériot met in a café in his hometown, Leuven. They met through mutual friends and both played the piano quite well.
In 1870, Baillot
Pierre Baillot
Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot was a French violinist and composer.Baillot was born in Passy and studied the violin under Giovanni Battista Viotti...
died in Leuven at the age of 68, and his position as instructor at the Paris Conservatoire was offered to de Bériot. He rejected the offer, however, and in 1843 became chief violin instructor at the Brussels Conservatory where he established the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing. On account of failing eyesight he retired in 1852, and in 1858 became totally blind. Paralysis of the left arm ended his career in 1866. His most illustrious disciples were Hubert Léonard
Hubert Léonard
Hubert Léonard was a famous Belgian violinist, born at Bellaire, Liège. His earliest preparatory training was given by Rouma, after which he entered the Paris Conservatory in 1836, where he studied for three years under Habeneck. In 1844 he started his extended tours which established his...
, Henri Vieuxtemps
Henri Vieuxtemps
Henri François Joseph 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....
and Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was a Moravian-Jewish violinist, violist and composer. Ernst was widely seen as the outstanding violinist of his time and one of Paganini's greatest successors....
.
Bériot wrote a great amount of violin music including ten concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
s, now rarely heard, although his pedagogical compositions are still of use for violin students. His son Charles-Wilfrid was a pianist who taught Granados
Enrique Granados
Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...
, Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
and Viñes
Ricardo Viñes
Ricardo Viñes was a Spanish pianist. He first publicly performed many important works by Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Manuel de Falla, Déodat de Séverac and Isaac Albéniz. He was also the piano teacher of composer Francis Poulenc and pianist Léo-Pol Morin.He was born in Lleida,...
.
A Summary of De Bériot's Repertoire: De Bériot's pioneering violin technique and Romantic composing style make his Concerti and Studies a vitally important stepping stone for the serious violin student wishing to enlarge his/her repertoire with the more famous Concerti by the Great Masters (Brahms, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky). His most popular Concerti are number 9 in A minor Op.104 and number 7 in G major Op.76. On Audio CD, Naxos have recorded and are planning to complete their recordings of all his Violin Concerti. They have also excellent renditions of Vieuxtemps' Concerti, which follow on perfectly in a technical and stylistic way from De Bériot's Concerti (logical since Vieuxtemps was De Bériot's pupil and thus continued the same Franco-Belgian style of violin playing). Schirmer still publish his Violin Method Op.102 (alas only part 1) and His "First 30 Concert Studies" Op.123. Also, Peters Edition still publish the famous encore piece for violin and orchestra (in a reduced format for violin and piano) "Scene de Ballet" Op.100.