Rodolphe Kreutzer was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 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....

ist, teacher, conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

, and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of forty French opera

French Opera

French opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen...

s.

Biography

Kreutzer was born in Versailles, and was initially taught by his father, who was a musician in the royal chapel, with later lessons from Anton Stamitz

Anton Stamitz

Antonín Thadaeus Jan Nepomuk Stamic was a German composer and violinist.Anton and his brother Carl received their first violin instruction from their father, Johann. After their father's death in 1757 they were taken on as students by Christian Cannabich, who had been a student of their father's...

. He became one of the foremost violin virtuosi of his day, appearing as a soloist until 1810. He was a violin professor at the Paris Conservatoire from its foundation in 1795 until 1826. He was co-author of the Conservatoire's violin method with Pierre Rode

Pierre Rode

Jacques Pierre Joseph Rode was a French violinist and composer.-Biography:Born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France, Pierre Rode traveled to Parisat the age of 13 and soon became a favourite pupil of the great Giovanni Battista Viotti who found the boy so talented that he charged him no fee for the...

 and Pierre 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...

, and the three are considered the founding trinity of the French school of violin playing. For a time, Kreutzer was leader of the Paris Opera

Académie Royale de Musique

The Salle Le Peletier was the home of the Paris Opera from 1821 until the building was destroyed by fire in 1873. The theatre was designed and constructed by the architect François Debret on the site of the former Hôtel de Choiseul...

, and from 1817 he conducted there too.

He is probably best known as the dedicatee of Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

's Violin Sonata No. 9

Violin Sonata No. 9 (Beethoven)

Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, commonly known as the Kreutzer Sonata, is a violin sonata which Ludwig van Beethoven published as his Opus 47...

 in A major

A major

A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps.Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor...

, Op. 47 (1803), though he never played the work, declaring it unplayable and incomprehensible. Kreutzer made the acquaintance of Beethoven in 1798, when at Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 in the service of the French ambassador, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte

Charles XIV John of Sweden

Charles XIV & III John, also Carl John, Swedish and Norwegian: Karl Johan was King of Sweden and King of Norway from 1818 until his death...

 (later King of Sweden and Norway). Beethoven originally dedicated the sonata to George Bridgetower

George Bridgetower

George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was an Afro-Polish-born virtuoso violinist, who lived in England for much of his life. He was born in Biala in Galicia, where his father worked for Hieronimus Wincenty Radziwill, in 1778. He was baptised Hieronimo Hyppolito de Augusto on 11 October 1778...

, the violinist at its first performance, but after a quarrel he revised the dedication in favour of Kreutzer.

Kreutzer was well known for his style of bowing, his splendid tone, and the clearness of his execution. His compositions include nineteen violin concerto

Violin concerto

A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...

s and forty opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s. His best known works, however, are the 42 études ou caprices

42 études ou caprices

The 42 études ou caprices for solo violin were composed by Rodolphe Kreutzer around 1796. Although Kreutzer was a prolific composer with some 50 stage works and dozens of other pieces to his credit, the 42 études remain his best known work and today are part of standard teaching repertoire.The...

(1796)-translation '42 studies or caprices', which are fundamental pedagogic studies.

He died in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

.