Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/279

VIEUXTEMPS. the composition of his Concerto in D minor (op. 31). 1855 was spent in Belgium, and at a property which he had acquired near Frankfort. In 1857 he again visited the United States in company with Thalberg, and in the winter of 1858 was once more in Paris occupied in finishing his 5th Concerto in A minor (op. 37). The next ten years were occupied in constant touring all over Central Europe, and, somewhat later, Italy. Serious affliction now overtook his hitherto prosperous course. First his father, and then June 29, 1868 his beloved wife, were taken from him by death. To divert his mind from the shock of these losses he engaged in another enormous tour over Europe, and that again was followed, in August 1870, by a third expedition to the United States, from which he returned in the spring of 1871 to find Paris in ruins. This was the last of his huge tours. From 1871 to 1873, on the invitation of M. Gevaerts, who had succeeded Fétis at the Brussels Conservatoire, he acted as teacher to the violin class there, and as director of the Popular Concerts; but this sphere of activity was suddenly ended by a paralytic attack which disabled the whole of his left side, and by consequence made playing impossible. True, he was able in time to resume the direction of his pupils, but his career as a player was at an end. His passion for travelling, however, remained to the last, and it was at Mustapha-lez Alger, in Algiers, that he died June 6, 1881, leaving a 6th Concerto, in G, dedicated to Mme. Normann-Neruda, by whom it was first played. In 1872 Vieuxtemps was elected member of the Académie Royale of Belgium, on which occasion he read a memoir of Étienne Jean Soubre.

Vieuxtemps was one of the greatest violinists of modern times, and with De Bériot heads the modern French school. He had all the great qualities of technique so characteristic of that school. His intonation was perfect, his command of the bow unsurpassed. An astonishing staccato—in up and down bow—was a speciality of his; and in addition he had a tone of such breadth and power as is not generally found with French violinists. His style of playing (Vortrag) was characteristically French. He was fond of strong dramatic accents and contrasts, and, generally speaking, his style was better adapted to his own compositions and those of other French composers than to the works of the great classical masters. At the same time it should be said that he gained some of his greatest successes in the Concertos of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, and was by no means unsuccessful as a quartet-player, even in Germany.

As a composer for the violin he has had a wider success than almost any one since Spohr; and the fact that not a few of his works, though written more than forty years ago, are still stock-pieces of the répertoires of all French and not a few German violinists, shows such vitality as to lift him out of the rank of composers of merely ephemeral productions of the virtuoso genre. It must be granted that their value is very unequal. While some of his Concertos contain really fine ideas worked out with great skill, he has also published many show-pieces which are not free from vulgarity.

While De Bériot, with his somewhat flimsy workmanship but undeniable charm of sentimental melody, has often been compared to Bellini and Donizetti, Vieuxtemps might not improperly be called the Meyerbeer among composers for the violin. He appears to share the good and the bad qualities of that great opera-writer. On the one hand, no lack of invention, beauty of melody, extremely clever calculation of effect; and on the other, a somewhat bombastic and theatrical pathos, and occasional lapses into triviality. Vieuxtemps shares also with Meyerbeer the fate of being generally underrated in Germany and overrated in France, where Meyerbeer is not unfrequently placed on the same level with Beethoven, and where Vieuxtemps, after playing his E major Concerto in Paris for the first time is said to have been invited to write a Grand Opera—an offer which he wisely declined.

The best-known of his works are the Concertos, no. 1, in E (op. 10); no. 2, in F♯ minor (op. 19); no. 3, in A (op. 25); no. 4, in D minor (op. 31); no. 5, in A minor (op. 37); no. 6, in G (op. 47); the Fantaisie Caprice, and Ballade et Polonaise. He also published a Sonata for piano and violin, 3 Cadenzas for Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and a large number of concert-pieces, many of which are long since obsolete. [ P. D. ]

VIGANÒ,. A famous dancer, and composer both of the action and the music of ballets, who will have a longer reputation than is otherwise his due, owing to his connection with Beethoven. He was born at Naples March 29, 1769, and died at Milan (the native town of his father) Aug. 10, 1821. He began his career at Rome in female parts, women being then forbidden the stage there. We next find him at Madrid—where he married Maria Medina, a famous dancer—Bordeaux, London, and Venice. At Venice he brought out an opera, 'Raoul, sire de Crequi,' both words and music his own. Thence he came to Vienna, where he and his wife made their début, May 13, 1793. He then travelled in Germany, and returned to Vienna in 1799. Here he attracted the notice of the Empress, and the result was his ballet of The Men of Prometheus, 'Gli Uomini di Prometeo,' or 'Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus' (music by Beethoven), the subject of which is said to have been suggested by Haydn's 'Creation' (Schöpfung), then in its first fame. The piece is called an heroic allegorical ballet, in two acts. It was produced at the Court Theatre, March 28, 1801, and the two 'creations' were danced by Viganò and Mlle. Cassentini, his wife being then passée. It had a remarkable run, being performed sixteen times in 1801, and thirteen times in 1802. Viganò was evidently a man of great ability, and made a real reputation for his abandonment of the old artificial Italian style of ballet in favour of a 'closer imitation of nature.' Ten ballets of his are mentioned in the 