"... Sauret’s command of the violin is extraordinary..."[14]
"Judging by his studies, he must certainly have possessed a stupendous technique in the days of his prime."[15]
"There is something demoniacal about his playing; his audience must follow him, must feel, laugh, weep, jest, or be sad with him. In the powerful spell which he casts over his audience, he is—perhaps—the only violinist who approaches Paganini."[16]
Émile Sauret was admired by some of the greatest musicians of the century including Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Bruch, Hans von Bülow, Wagner, Grieg, Mahler, Svensden, and Rossini.[17]
He gave numerous concerts with Liszt, Rubinstein, and Moszkowski, and often played duets with Sarasate. Perhaps it is ironic in the light of The Musical Times review (1900) cited above that in the present day, he is predominantly remembered by violinists and music lovers alike for the fiendishly difficult cadenza he composed to Paganini’s first violin concerto.
There is no comprehensive biography of Émile Sauret and the focus of this thesis does not allow for an exhaustive biographical exploration in this chapter. Rather, the goal here is to present a nuanced and detailed portrait of Émile Sauret as a performer, pedagogue and composer in order to help build a context for my engagement with his ÉC, op. 64.
Sauret’s name is omitted from Henry Roth’s 1997 Violin Virtuosos: From Paganini to the 21st Century.[18] Margaret Campbell’s survey, The Great Violinists, published in 1980,[19] includes an illustrative lineage comprising ‘Teacher-pupil relationships from Corelli to the present day’ with no branches to or from Sauret. The single-volume tenth edition of Percy A. Scholes’ The Oxford Companion to Music (1970) makes no mention of him either.[20] Entries in major biographical dictionaries including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians;[21] The Oxford Companion to Music;[22] Carlo Schmidl’s Dizionario Universale Dei Musicisti;[23] and Gustaf Hilleström’s Kungl. Musikaliska akademien.: Matrikel 1771-1971 have inconsistencies in the dates of his appointments at London conservatories, including the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music.[24]. The date of his London debut is also inconsistent in various entries in the British Newspaper Archives. It seems clear that the passage of time has caused Sauret’s work to have slipped quite a few nets and this portrait draws on a lot of primary source material to put this right.
Victor Gilbert Émile Sauret, the second of three children (sons), was born on 22nd May 1852 in Dun-le-Roi (now renamed Dun-sur-Auron), department of Cher, a town south of the city of Bourges.[25] H. Henderson’s article on Émile Sauret in the September 1908 edition of The Strad states that he was brought up by relatively unmusical parents,[26] who were quick to notice his musical promise from early childhood. This is debatable, as in 1852, his father, François Sauret was awarded a First Prize (trombone) at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMD),[27] and in 1862 was entrusted the trombone class at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg.[28]
One of the only biographical sketches to elaborate on Sauret’s early violin instruction (1858) comes from Charles Rondolet and appears in the January 1900 edition of The Musical Times. It proceeds to suggest that the family soon moved to Strasbourg, where Sauret studied under M. Schwaerderlé.[29]
During a period of residence in Paris,[30] Sauret continued his studies under the guidance of the founder of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing, the renowned Belgian violinist and pedagogue, Charles de Bériot. Whilst Straetten’s The History of the Violin,[31] amongst other sources, states that Sauret studied at the Paris and Brussels Conservatoires, Roger Cotte’s entry on Sauret in The New Grove Dictionary suggests that there is no record of his having studied at the Paris Conservatoire and that it is not even certain that he was a pupil at the Brussels Conservatory.[32] The 1900 biographical sketch in The Musical Times affirms that he was never a pupil at either institution.[33] Barbara Englesberg’s thesis on Ethel Barns (one of Sauret’s students at the RAM),[34] cites Cotte’s entry for Charles de Bériot to conclude that “de Beriot, having been forced to retire from the [Brussels] Conservatory in 1852, the year of Sauret’s birth, because of failing eyesight, could not have taught Sauret there.”[35] If one takes the implied dedication in the fourth part of Sauret's Gradus ad Parnassum du violiniste op. 36 (1896) into consideration, some biographical dictionaries state that Sauret had occasionally studied with Henri Vieuxtemps and Henryk Wieniawski.[36]
The 1900 The Musical Times sketch conveys that Sauret “at this time, benefited by a dual pupilage, as he also took some lessons from Vieuxtemps”. Sauret is later quoted in the article, recalling of Vieuxtemps’ kindness when he presented him with his bow following a performance.[37] Thus, although details of Sauret’s violin training are few, it seems reasonable to assert that he was one of the last major advocates of the nineteenth- century Franco-Belgian school. While in Paris, Sauret also studied harmony with M. Victorin de Joncières.[38]
Following a public concerto debut at the age of eight,[39] Sauret embarked on a busy performing career, travelling through the major cities of Italy, Vienna, Germany and London. In France, he was invited to play on many occasions at the court of Napoleon III.[40]
Notes and References
[14]. Bernard Shaw and Dan H. Laurence, "Shaw's Music,” The Complete Musical Criticism of Bernard Shaw: Volume 2, 1890–1893 (London: The Bodley Head Ltd, 1989) 629.
[15]. Carl Flesch, The Memoirs of Carl Flesch (London: Rockliff, 1957), 192.
[16]. “Emile Sauret,” TMT 41, no. 683 (January 1900).
[17]. Encounters with other musicians discusses a selection of Sauret’s encounters with Bruch, Sarasate, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Liszt and Scharwenka in more detail.
[18]. Henry Roth, Violin Virtuosos: from Paganini to the 21st century (California Classics Books, 1997).
[19]. Margaret Campbell, Great Violinists (London: Paul Elek Ltd, Granada Publishing, 1980). xx-xxi.
[20]. Percy A. Scholes, and John Owen Ward, The Oxford Companion to Music (London: Oxford University Press, 2000).
[21]. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (New York: Grove, 2001).
[22]. Percy A. Scholes, and John Owen Ward, The Oxford Companion to Music (London: Oxford University Press, 2000).
[23]. Carlo Schmidl, Dizionario universale dei musicisti Suppl (Milan: Sonzogno, 1938).
[24]. Gustaf Hilleström, Kungl. Musikaliska akademien. Matrikel 1771-1971 (Stockholm: Nordiska musikförlaget, 1971).
[25]. “Public Family Trees,” https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/4487992/person/-1383986797/story.
[26]. H. Henderson, “Emile Sauret,” The Strad (September 1908): 171.
"Musical ability in his case [Sauret’s] can scarcely be an inheritance, for he comes from a family who have made themselves better known as successful lawyers, clergymen, and farmers than as devotees of art in any form."
[27]. “Archives des Lauréats des CNSMD depuis 1836,” https://lesitedutrombone.fr/archives-laureats- cnsmd-1836/.
[28]. Michael Fend and Michel Noiray, eds., Musical education in Europe (1770-1914): compositional, institutional, and political challenges: Vol. 1 (Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2005).
In this publication, François Sauret is referred to as the ‘father of the famous violinist, Émile Sauret’.
[29]. “Emile Sauret,” TMT 41, no. 683 (January 1900).
Simon Schwaederlé was a pupil of Baillot at the Paris Conservatoire, where he obtained a first prize, and for several years occupied the post of first violin at the Opéra.
[30]. Ibid., (date undefined)
It is difficult to trace the exact dates of Sauret’s tuition during this period of residence in Paris, as his name does not appear in the registers and calendars of the relative institutions mentioned in biographical and periodical entries.
[31]. Edmond Van der Straeten, The History of the Violin (London: Cassell and Co. 1933).
[32]. Roger Cotte, “Émile Sauret,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 6th ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), XVI, p.524.
[33]. “Emile Sauret,” TMT 41, no. 683 (January 1900).
[34]. Barbara J. Englesberg, The Life and Works of Ethel Barns: British Violinist-composer (1873-1948), (PhD thesis, Boston University, 1987).
[35]. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (New York: Grove, 2001).
[36]. Stefan Drees, Lexikon der Violine: Baugeschichte—Spielpraxis—Komponisten und ihre Werke— Interpreten (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 2004).
[37]. “Emile Sauret,” TMT 41, no. 683 (January 1900).
[38]. Ibid.
[39]. Ibid.
[40]. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (New York: Grove, 2001).
"Judging by his studies, he must certainly have possessed a stupendous technique in the days of his prime."[15]
"There is something demoniacal about his playing; his audience must follow him, must feel, laugh, weep, jest, or be sad with him. In the powerful spell which he casts over his audience, he is—perhaps—the only violinist who approaches Paganini."[16]
Émile Sauret was admired by some of the greatest musicians of the century including Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Bruch, Hans von Bülow, Wagner, Grieg, Mahler, Svensden, and Rossini.[17]
He gave numerous concerts with Liszt, Rubinstein, and Moszkowski, and often played duets with Sarasate. Perhaps it is ironic in the light of The Musical Times review (1900) cited above that in the present day, he is predominantly remembered by violinists and music lovers alike for the fiendishly difficult cadenza he composed to Paganini’s first violin concerto.
There is no comprehensive biography of Émile Sauret and the focus of this thesis does not allow for an exhaustive biographical exploration in this chapter. Rather, the goal here is to present a nuanced and detailed portrait of Émile Sauret as a performer, pedagogue and composer in order to help build a context for my engagement with his ÉC, op. 64.
Sauret’s name is omitted from Henry Roth’s 1997 Violin Virtuosos: From Paganini to the 21st Century.[18] Margaret Campbell’s survey, The Great Violinists, published in 1980,[19] includes an illustrative lineage comprising ‘Teacher-pupil relationships from Corelli to the present day’ with no branches to or from Sauret. The single-volume tenth edition of Percy A. Scholes’ The Oxford Companion to Music (1970) makes no mention of him either.[20] Entries in major biographical dictionaries including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians;[21] The Oxford Companion to Music;[22] Carlo Schmidl’s Dizionario Universale Dei Musicisti;[23] and Gustaf Hilleström’s Kungl. Musikaliska akademien.: Matrikel 1771-1971 have inconsistencies in the dates of his appointments at London conservatories, including the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music.[24]. The date of his London debut is also inconsistent in various entries in the British Newspaper Archives. It seems clear that the passage of time has caused Sauret’s work to have slipped quite a few nets and this portrait draws on a lot of primary source material to put this right.
Victor Gilbert Émile Sauret, the second of three children (sons), was born on 22nd May 1852 in Dun-le-Roi (now renamed Dun-sur-Auron), department of Cher, a town south of the city of Bourges.[25] H. Henderson’s article on Émile Sauret in the September 1908 edition of The Strad states that he was brought up by relatively unmusical parents,[26] who were quick to notice his musical promise from early childhood. This is debatable, as in 1852, his father, François Sauret was awarded a First Prize (trombone) at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMD),[27] and in 1862 was entrusted the trombone class at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg.[28]
One of the only biographical sketches to elaborate on Sauret’s early violin instruction (1858) comes from Charles Rondolet and appears in the January 1900 edition of The Musical Times. It proceeds to suggest that the family soon moved to Strasbourg, where Sauret studied under M. Schwaerderlé.[29]
During a period of residence in Paris,[30] Sauret continued his studies under the guidance of the founder of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing, the renowned Belgian violinist and pedagogue, Charles de Bériot. Whilst Straetten’s The History of the Violin,[31] amongst other sources, states that Sauret studied at the Paris and Brussels Conservatoires, Roger Cotte’s entry on Sauret in The New Grove Dictionary suggests that there is no record of his having studied at the Paris Conservatoire and that it is not even certain that he was a pupil at the Brussels Conservatory.[32] The 1900 biographical sketch in The Musical Times affirms that he was never a pupil at either institution.[33] Barbara Englesberg’s thesis on Ethel Barns (one of Sauret’s students at the RAM),[34] cites Cotte’s entry for Charles de Bériot to conclude that “de Beriot, having been forced to retire from the [Brussels] Conservatory in 1852, the year of Sauret’s birth, because of failing eyesight, could not have taught Sauret there.”[35] If one takes the implied dedication in the fourth part of Sauret's Gradus ad Parnassum du violiniste op. 36 (1896) into consideration, some biographical dictionaries state that Sauret had occasionally studied with Henri Vieuxtemps and Henryk Wieniawski.[36]
The 1900 The Musical Times sketch conveys that Sauret “at this time, benefited by a dual pupilage, as he also took some lessons from Vieuxtemps”. Sauret is later quoted in the article, recalling of Vieuxtemps’ kindness when he presented him with his bow following a performance.[37] Thus, although details of Sauret’s violin training are few, it seems reasonable to assert that he was one of the last major advocates of the nineteenth- century Franco-Belgian school. While in Paris, Sauret also studied harmony with M. Victorin de Joncières.[38]
Following a public concerto debut at the age of eight,[39] Sauret embarked on a busy performing career, travelling through the major cities of Italy, Vienna, Germany and London. In France, he was invited to play on many occasions at the court of Napoleon III.[40]
Notes and References
[14]. Bernard Shaw and Dan H. Laurence, "Shaw's Music,” The Complete Musical Criticism of Bernard Shaw: Volume 2, 1890–1893 (London: The Bodley Head Ltd, 1989) 629.
[15]. Carl Flesch, The Memoirs of Carl Flesch (London: Rockliff, 1957), 192.
[16]. “Emile Sauret,” TMT 41, no. 683 (January 1900).
[17]. Encounters with other musicians discusses a selection of Sauret’s encounters with Bruch, Sarasate, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Liszt and Scharwenka in more detail.
[18]. Henry Roth, Violin Virtuosos: from Paganini to the 21st century (California Classics Books, 1997).
[19]. Margaret Campbell, Great Violinists (London: Paul Elek Ltd, Granada Publishing, 1980). xx-xxi.
[20]. Percy A. Scholes, and John Owen Ward, The Oxford Companion to Music (London: Oxford University Press, 2000).
[21]. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (New York: Grove, 2001).
[22]. Percy A. Scholes, and John Owen Ward, The Oxford Companion to Music (London: Oxford University Press, 2000).
[23]. Carlo Schmidl, Dizionario universale dei musicisti Suppl (Milan: Sonzogno, 1938).
[24]. Gustaf Hilleström, Kungl. Musikaliska akademien. Matrikel 1771-1971 (Stockholm: Nordiska musikförlaget, 1971).
[25]. “Public Family Trees,” https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/4487992/person/-1383986797/story.
[26]. H. Henderson, “Emile Sauret,” The Strad (September 1908): 171.
"Musical ability in his case [Sauret’s] can scarcely be an inheritance, for he comes from a family who have made themselves better known as successful lawyers, clergymen, and farmers than as devotees of art in any form."
[27]. “Archives des Lauréats des CNSMD depuis 1836,” https://lesitedutrombone.fr/archives-laureats- cnsmd-1836/.
[28]. Michael Fend and Michel Noiray, eds., Musical education in Europe (1770-1914): compositional, institutional, and political challenges: Vol. 1 (Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2005).
In this publication, François Sauret is referred to as the ‘father of the famous violinist, Émile Sauret’.
[29]. “Emile Sauret,” TMT 41, no. 683 (January 1900).
Simon Schwaederlé was a pupil of Baillot at the Paris Conservatoire, where he obtained a first prize, and for several years occupied the post of first violin at the Opéra.
[30]. Ibid., (date undefined)
It is difficult to trace the exact dates of Sauret’s tuition during this period of residence in Paris, as his name does not appear in the registers and calendars of the relative institutions mentioned in biographical and periodical entries.
[31]. Edmond Van der Straeten, The History of the Violin (London: Cassell and Co. 1933).
[32]. Roger Cotte, “Émile Sauret,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 6th ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), XVI, p.524.
[33]. “Emile Sauret,” TMT 41, no. 683 (January 1900).
[34]. Barbara J. Englesberg, The Life and Works of Ethel Barns: British Violinist-composer (1873-1948), (PhD thesis, Boston University, 1987).
[35]. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (New York: Grove, 2001).
[36]. Stefan Drees, Lexikon der Violine: Baugeschichte—Spielpraxis—Komponisten und ihre Werke— Interpreten (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 2004).
[37]. “Emile Sauret,” TMT 41, no. 683 (January 1900).
[38]. Ibid.
[39]. Ibid.
[40]. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (New York: Grove, 2001).