Background
Vieuxtemps was born in Verviers, Belgium (then part of the Netherlands), son of a weaver and amateur violinist and violin-maker.
Vieuxtemps was born in Verviers, Belgium (then part of the Netherlands), son of a weaver and amateur violinist and violin-maker.
Henri François Joseph received his first violin instruction from his father and a local teacher and gave his first public performance at the age of six, playing a concerto by Pierre Rode. Soon he was giving concerts in various surrounding cities, including Liège and Brussels where he met the violinist Charles Auguste de Bériot, with whom he began studies.
Until his seventh year he was a pupil of Lecloux, but when De Beriot heard him he adopted him as his pupil, taking him to appear in Paris in 1828.
He first appeared in London at a Philharmonic concert on the 2nd of June 1834, and in the following year studied composition with Reicha in Paris, and began to produce a long series of works, full of formidably difficult passages, though, also of pleasing themes, and fine musical ideas, which are consequently highly appreciated by violinists.
In 1829, Bériot took Henri François Joseph to Paris where he made a successful concert debut, again with a concerto by Rode, but he had to return the next year because of the July Revolution and Bériot's marriage to his mistress Maria Malibran and departure on concert tour. Back in Brussels, Vieuxtemps continued developing his violin technique on his own, his musicianship deepened by playing with the deeply musical mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot, Malibran's sister.
His Violin Concerto No. 1 was acclaimed when he played it in Saint Petersburg on his second visit in 1840 and in Paris the next year; Berlioz found it "a magnificent symphony for violin and orchestra". Based in Paris, Vieuxtemps continued to compose with great success and perform throughout Europe. With the pianist Sigismond Thalberg, he performed in the United States. He was particularly admired in Russia where he resided permanently between 1846 and 1851 as a court musician of Tsar Nicholas I and soloist in the Imperial Theatre.