Henry Vieuxtemps at the Royal Library of Belgium

Marie Cornaz

Friday, November 16, 2012

Henry Vieuxtemps (1820-1881) is in the news at the Royal Library of Belgium, with an important find and an online exhibition.

Unknown opera ‘La Fiancée de Messine’ by Henry Vieuxtemps in the Music Department of the Royal Library of Belgium

In 2011, the King Baudouin Foundation bought an exceptional set of 32 music manuscripts by the violinist Henry Vieuxtemps. Thanks to the support of the Abbé Manoël de la Serna fund administered by the King Baudouin Foundation, the Vieuxtemps collection in the Music Department of the Royal Library of Belgium has been recently supplemented by a unique autograph manuscript of the composer’s only opera, La Fiancée de Messine, a work completely unknown until now. So far, 11 manuscripts by Vieuxtemps held by the Royal Library have been cataloged for RISM and are available through the online catalog.

Virtual exhibition Henry Vieuxtemps

The Music Department of the Royal Library of Belgium holds the largest collection of scores by the famous 19^th century violinist and composer Henry Vieuxtemps. To revive this heritage, the Royal Library of Belgium has launched amongst other things an online exhibition on the life and works of Henry Vieuxtemps. The exhibition gives a chronological survey of his career and features numerous unpublished documents including autograph scores, letters and illustrations.

Online exhibition: http://vieuxtemps.kbr.be Available languages: French and Dutch

Category: Library collections