The violinist who commissioned a cello
OrchestrasIn 1862, the phenomenal Belgian violinist Henry Vieuxtemps asked his friend the celebrated luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume to make him a cello.
He may have wanted it for his string quartet, or maybe just for fooling around, but the instrument has survived to this day in good condion in the Veiuxtemps family. It is finally coming up for sale by auction with other Vuilllaume treasures this month.
How interesting. I play cello but happen to descend from a line of string teachers that includes… Vieuxtemps!
Most great string players, particularly of that era when the best instruments were nonetheless affordable, were connoisseurs of instruments and of craftsmanship, and perhaps this commission is not so surprising given that the great Paganini owned at least two notable cellos, although I am aware no evidence Paganini himself played them (although just about any violinist would be able to “play tunes” on a cello even if the finger positions would give a true cellist some qualms). The cello clearly interested Vieuxtemps since he composed two fine concertos for cello, after his own playing days were abruptly ended by strokes. Only in recent years has much attention been paid to those concertos.
To add to the linkages, Vuillaume was Paganini’s preferred repairman and working on Paganini’s “Canon” Guarnieri essentially is what introduced Vuillaume to the del Gesu patterns and practices and greatly influenced the violins he made from that point forward. He even made a copy of the “Canon” so perfect that when he returned the repaired original to Paganini and showed him the copy, visually at least Paganini had difficulty telling them apart.
Vieuxtemps could not have chosen better for a commissioned cello maker.