César Thomson

César Thomson

César Thomson (18 March 1857 – 21 August 1931) was a Belgian violinist, teacher and composer.

He was born in Liège in 1857. At age seven, he entered the Liège Conservatory of Music, and studied under Jacques Dupuis and Lambert Massart. By age 16, he was considered to have "a technique unrivalled by any other violinist then living".^[1] He was also a student of Hubert Léonard, Henryk Wieniawski and Henri Vieuxtemps.^[2]

In 1875 he travelled in Italy, and became a member of the private orchestra of Baron de Derwies. In 1877 he built the Castello di Trevano at Lugano, Switzerland, and married a local noblewoman, Luisa Riva.^[3] In 1879 he played in a Berlin orchestra, and in 1882 was appointed violin professor at his alma mater, the Liège Conservatory. In 1897 he succeeded Eugène Ysaÿe as principal professor at the Brussels Conservatory. In 1898 he established a string quartet, with himself as first violin.

He had great success as a concert soloist at Leipzig in 1891 and Brussels in 1898. His appearances in Britain and the United States were less favourably received, but he was popular in South America. He taught at Ithaca College in New York 1924-27 and at the Juilliard School.^[4]

César Thomson revived many of the then obscure works of Niccolò Paganini, and he did much work in editing, arranging and transcribing works from the early Italian school, by composers such as Corelli, Handel, Tartini, J. S. Bach, Nardini and Vitali.^[3] His own compositions included a Zigeuner Rhapsody for violin and orchestra (1909).^[5]

César Thomson died in Lugano in 1931.

His notable students included: Hugo Alfvén, Aylmer Buesst, Edwin Grasse, Johan Halvorsen, Paul Kochanski, Alma Moodie, Guillermo Uribe Holguín, Tony Schultze, Haydn Wood, and three members of the Flonzaley Quartet^[6]

There is a Boulevarde César Thomson in Liège.

References

1. ^ Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed.
2. ^ Sheila M. Nelson, The Violin and Viola
3. ^ ^{a b} Ricercarmusica (Italian)
4. ^ Ithaca College Scrapbook
5. ^ University of Rochester
6. ^ Robin Stowell, The Cambridge Companion to the String Quartet

Persondata
Name	Thomson, César
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	18 March 1857
Place of birth	Liège, Belgium
Date of death	21 August 1931
Place of death	Lugano