Henri Dupont

Henri Dupont (Henri Joseph Dupont) was a Belgian violinist, conductor, composer, and teacher born (in Ensival) on January 3, 1838.  Brahms was five years old that year and Belgium itself was almost a brand new country at that time.  Other than that he has a very recognizable surname, Dupont is not known – with regard to the violin - for anything in particular.  Belgium has for generations produced many spectacular violin virtuosos but Dupont is not one of them.  His name is most often mentioned as a conductor of opera – according to several sources, he conducted many outstanding performances in England (Covent Garden) which today (had they been filmed for posterity) would probably be acclaimed.  He received his training from the conservatories at Liege and Brussels – I don’t know how early he began his violin studies nor who his teachers were.  In 1863 he won the Belgian version of the Rome Prize (Prix de Rome) for composition.  He was 25 years old.  After that, he took off on a study tour throughout Europe which lasted four years – this excursion was probably subsidized by the Belgian government, although I am not certain of that.  In 1867, he became concertmaster of the Warsaw Opera House.  He was 29 years old.  In 1871, he took a similar post at the Imperial Theatre of Moscow.  One year later, he was back in Brussels where he was hired as professor of harmony at the Conservatory while simultaneously serving as concertmaster of the Monnaie Theatre (Theatre Royal de la Monnaie or Royal Theatre of the Coin – a theatre dating back to 1700.)  He also served as conductor there beginning that same year.  He was 34 years old.  He also guest conducted operas at the Royal Opera House in London many times.  In 1873, he took over as director of the Popular Concerts (Concerts Populaires) from none other than Henri Vieuxtemps (who had become incapacitated as the result of a stroke that same year.)  Dupont was made a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium in 1899.  He died on December 21, 1899, at age 61, just ten days before the start of the Twentieth Century.  

Henry Holst

Henry Holst was a Danish violinist and teacher born (in Saeby, Denmark) on July 25, 1899.  He spent quite a bit of time in England but is not related – as far as I know – to the other Holst.  He was probably the first violinist to play (in 1921 with the Berlin Philharmonic) three concertos in the same concert program – before Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szeryng, Szymon Goldberg, and Raymond Cohen did it.  (See comment below.)  Holst must have begun his violin studies while still very young but I don’t know how young nor with whom.  In 1913, he was admitted into the Royal Danish Academy of Music.  He was 14 years old.  His teachers there were Axel Gade (son of Niels Gade) and violinist/composer Carl Nielsen.  At age 18, he made his debut playing Henri Vieuxtemps’ first violin concerto, the longest violin concerto Vieuxtemps ever wrote.  He then studied further with Hungarian violinist Emil Telmanyi.  After that, he traveled to Berlin to study with Willy Hess, a German violinist who played far and wide during his career, including the U.S.  In 1923, Holst became concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic.  He was 24 years old.  He quit that post in 1931 and went to live in England where he taught at the Royal Manchester College of Music.  There, he founded the Henry Holst String Quartet which he disbanded in 1941 to start the Philharmonia Quartet which itself was disbanded in 1952.  He was also active as a soloist.  Holst gave the European Premiere of the Walton violin concerto, a work which had been championed by Jascha Heifetz for a time, in 1941.  Holst also gave the world premiere of the revised version of the concerto in 1944.  The Walton concerto is very seldom played now.  In 1945, Holst moved to London to teach at the Royal College of Music.  He was 46 years old.  Holst moved back to Denmark in 1954 where he taught at the Royal Danish College of Music.  I don’t know how many years he was there but it must have been quite a few.  Henry Holst died on October 19, 1991 at age 92, largely forgotten. 

Emile Sauret

Emile Sauret was a French violinist and composer born on May 22, 1852 (Brahms was 19 years old.) He began studying violin at age 6 with Charles Rondolet at Strasburg. Two years later, he was already concertizing. As a young touring artist, his father was his constant companion. Later on, and almost simultaneously, he studied with Charles De Beriot and Henri Vieuxtemps. Like Paganini before him, he never attended a conservatory. His first appearance in England was in 1862, at age 10. He made a return visit in 1866. He was known for his constant European and world-wide travels and his numerous friendships with the most famous musicians of his time – Rossini, Grieg, Brahms, Liszt, Bruch, Saint Saenz, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Sarasate, Ernst, Wieniawski, Bazzini, and Sivori, to name a few. He toured the U.S. in 1872, where Liszt accompanied him on at least two recitals. He also often played for French Emperor-President Napoleon III and his court. It has been said that his repertoire included no less than 70 concertos and 400 miscellaneous works. In 1873, he married Teresa Carreno, the Venezuelan concert pianist and composer of the national anthem of Venezuela. They divorced in 1875. In 1879, he married Emmy Hotter and henceforth taught at the Stern Academy in Berlin for a number of years. 1890 found him teaching at the Royal Academy of Music in London, which he made his home until his death. In 1903, he taught at the Chicago Musical College. One of his students in Chicago was Sol B. Cohen, a well-known composer, violinist, conductor, and teacher of the early and mid Twentieth Century. Sauret's last teaching appointment was at the Trinity College of Music (in London) where he taught between 1915 and 1919. Among Sauret's famous pupils are William Reed and Isolde Menges. Today, Sauret is mostly remembered for the famous and very difficult cadenza he wrote for Paganini’s first violin concerto, although he wrote more than 200 other works, including three violin concertos - the first in g minor, the second in E major, and the third in B minor. He also wrote a book of extraordinarily difficult violin studies which almost nobody uses now. A Stradivarius violin from 1685 is named after him. A Guarnerius violin from 1744 is also named after him. Sauret died in London on February 12, 1920, at age 68.

Benjamin Godard

Benjamin Godard (Benjamin Louis Paul Godard) was a French violinist and composer born on August 18, 1849 (Brahms was 16 years old.) He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1863, at age 14, where he studied with Henri Vieuxtemps, among others. He also began to compose as a teenager and throughout his life received various awards and honors for his compositions, many of them large scale. He worked as a violist while waiting for his eventual success as a composer. His violin concerto (Concerto Romantique) was performed at the Concerts Populaires in 1876 as were other of his large works later on. In 1878, Godard won the Prix de la Ville de Paris for his symphony, Le Tasso. Godard is most famous for his “Berceuse” from his opera Jocelyn, one of eight operas he composed (1888.) He became a professor at the Paris Conservatory in 1887. Godard was among many musicians (including Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Rossini, and Brahms) opposed to the music of Richard Wagner. Among his many works are three symphonies, two violin concertos, two piano concertos, three string quartets, four (or five) violin sonatas, a sonata for cello and piano, two piano trios, one hundred songs, and various other orchestral works. Though live performances of his music are rare, there are almost 100 recordings of his works available. One of the latest is Chloe Hanslip’s recording of the two violin concertos on the Naxos label. Godard died on January 10, 1895, at age 45.

Eugene Ysaye

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer, conductor, and teacher born on July 16, 1858 (Brahms was 25 years old.) His first lessons were with his father but later on, he was largely self-taught until about age 12. After he entered the Conservatory at Liege at age 7, he was dismissed because he made little progress. As a teenager, he became a pupil of both Henryk Wieniawski and Henri Vieuxtemps. Having graduated from the same conservatory he had previously been kicked out of, he became concertmaster of a highly accomplished orchestra which was about to become (in 1882) the Berlin Philharmonic – Benjamin Bilse’s Band. Many famous musicians frequented the beer hall where this orchestra played – among them were Joseph Joachim, Franz Lizst, Clara Schumann, and Anton Rubinstein. At age 27, Ysaye made his Paris debut and thus began a highly successful concert career. The following year, he was appointed violin professor at the Conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. Louis Persinger, Josef Gingold, Nathan Milstein, Alfred Dubois, Jascha Brodsky, Nikolai Sokoloff, and William Primrose were among his many students. In 1886, he founded the Ysaye String Quartet. Debussy, Saint Saenz, Chausson, and Franck were among composers who dedicated works to him. Ysaye was a busy concert artist. In fact, he turned down the conductor’s post at the New York Philharmonic when it was offered to him (1898) precisely because he was too busy. Understandably, Ysaye did not have too much time to compose though he wrote six sonatas for solo violin which are part of the standard repertoire, some chamber music, a few orchestral pieces, and an opera (Peter the Miner.) Carl Flesch, the Hungarian violin pedagogue was quoted as saying that Ysaye was the most outstanding and individual violinist that he had ever heard in his life.   Ysaye was principal conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony for four years – 1918 to 1922 – and made a few recordings with that orchestra. It was during his tenure there that he met his second wife – he was 66 and she was 22 (Jeanette Dincin, a violinist.) Ysaye died in Brussels on May 12, 1931, at age 72. 

Henri Vieuxtemps

Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps (Henri Vieuxtemps) was a Belgian violinist, composer, and teacher born on February 17, 1820 (Beethoven was about 49 years old). He first studied with his father and gave his first concert at age 6. When soon afterward he started touring, he met the famous De Beriot in Brussels and began taking lessons from him. He travelled to Paris in 1829 to continue studying with De Beriot. In 1830, back in Brussels, he studied on his own. In 1833, he toured Germany and was praised by Louis Spohr and Robert Schumann. When Vieuxtemps debuted in London in 1834, Paganini himself attended the concert. Having established himself in Paris, he continued to tour extensively but also began composing seriously (at which he was very successful) in 1835. Between 1846 and 1851, he made Russia his home and in fact founded the violin school at the St Petersburg Conservatory, later made famous by Leopold Auer. By 1871, he was back in Brussels teaching at the Conservatory. Eugene Ysaye was one of his pupils there. His compositions include seven violin concertos (number 5 being the most frequently played), two cello concertos and some chamber music. All of his violin concertos have been recorded and are presently available. Vieuxtemps died in June of 1881, at age 61.