Henry Vieuxtemps attracted early attention as a prodigy, making his first public appearance as a violinist at the age of six. He later studied with Charles de Bériot and moved with him from Brussels to Paris in 1829. Two years later he embarked on the first of his concert tours, impressing musicians such as Schumann and Paganini. He took composition lessons with Sechter in Vienna and later with Reicha in Paris and wrote violin music for his own use on extended concert tours that took him to the major cities of Europe and, with the pianist Thalberg, to the United States of America. In 1871 he was appointed professor at the Brussels Conservatoire, where his pupils included Eugène Ysaÿe. He died in Algeria in 1881 after eight years of...