carved nose and mouth, the former long and straight, with elaborate curves, the latter delicately pencilled-sweet and sensitive, yet cold and disdainful-and a proud, strong chin, moulded to the faultless outline of the face, We must remember, too, that his figure was handsome and perfectly proportioned.

H

VIEUXTEMPS

1820-1881

ENRI VIEUXTEMPS, a distinguished

violinist, was born at Verviers, in Belgium, on February 17th, 1820. His father, a musician, early discovered the boy's remarkable talent for music, and had him instructed by a local musician named Lecloux. The baby-pupil made astonishing progress with the violin, and in his sixth year he played Rode's 5th Concerto in public. A year later he went on a concert tour with his master. On this tour he met De Bériot, who manifested the kindest interest in the youthful prodigy, giving him lessons, and preparing him for a subsequent appearance in Paris, to which capital he accompanied De Bériot in 1828.

After the return from Paris in 1831, the boy studied hard at Brussels for three years, when, accompanied by his father, he undertook a very successful tour through Germany, during which he met Spohr, Molique, and other musicians of

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light and leading, who took him by the hand and helped to forward his career. Among his experiences at this period was a performance of Fidelio, which served to enlarge his intellectual view, and to give new life and increased force and amplitude to his studies. He made rapid progress. His style broadened and deepened; he began to realise that the master of the violin must have constantly in view something that lies beyond perfect technique and dexterous manipulative skill. His full, rich tone, pure intonation, and refined and graceful style excited a general chorus of praise. But these qualities, he felt, admirable as they are, were not sufficient to constitute the highest excellence. He took lessons in counterpoint from Sechter; derived considerable advantage from genial and instructive intercourse with Czerny and Mayseder; and succeeded in astonishing these masters by the consummate ease with which he played a manuscript piece of Mayseder's at sight. He added to his laurels by a careful and finished performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, then quite new to the public. He passed though Leipzig on the homeward journey, and was warmly welcomed by the large-hearted Schumann in an appreciative article in his Neue Zeitschrift.

He made his appearance in London with De Bériot in 1834, playing at the Philharmonic Concerts with great success. But a greater thing than mere success happened to him in London. He heard Paganini play La Streghe (The Witch'). The performance filled his soul with delighted wonder and an ecstasy of admiration. Words, he declares, were inadequate to express his feelings; and the wonder and delight lived with him all through his life, not unmixed with a sense of personal incompleteness and a kind of artistic despair. It is from tributes of this high character that we are sometimes enabled to approach the remote confines of the great world of music in whieh Paganini ruled as absolute king. Ernst followed him from town to town, fascinated by his weird power and transcendent skill; and, many years after the occasion referred to, Vieuxtemps, then esteemed as one of the first performers of the age and the most remarkable composer for the violin, writes to a friend: 'Paganini's bow was fabulous in rapidity; his certainty stupefying, never even a doubtful note; he was infallible. . . How can I venture to give an opinion on him-moi, pygmée ?' 1

...

1 Vide From Mozart to Mario.

Reminiscences of Half-aCentury, by Louis Engel (London: Bentley and Son, 1886),

vol. ii. p. 231.

During the next year Vieuxtemps studied composition under the guidance of Reicha, and to this and the following two years (1835-37), passed in Paris, may be dated some of the best of his earlier compositions. A second visit to Vienna in 1837 was shortly followed by a tour in Russia, part of which was undertaken in the company of Henselt. His success was of the brilliant order-such, indeed, as warranted a second visit in the following year. He journeyed via Riga in company with Servais. They met Wagner on the road, and a very pleasant trip was suddenly interrupted by a serious attack of illness, which kept Vieuxtemps a prisoner on the road, and lost him his winter season amid the brilliant cities of the great empire. He devoted the summer to composition, and completed, among other works, his Concerto in E and Fantaisie Caprice. Both works were produced in the winter with prodigious success. He played the Concerto at the Rubens Fêtes in Antwerp in 1840, where the now famous violinist was publicly decorated with the Order of Leopold. Next year (1841) he carried his new works to Paris, where they were performed at the Conservatorial Concerts, and in London at the Philharmonic Concerts.

The subsequent record of Vieuxtemps' life