Duo Concertante in g minor, op. 57

Charles Auguste de Bériot (1802 – 1870)

Charles August de Bériot was a Belgian violin virtuoso, composer, and founder of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing.

De Bériot first moved to France at age eight to study with several French violinists, including a Jean-François Tiby, a student of Viotti and de Bériot’s legal ward, and Pierre Baillot, who is considered to be the last important representative of the Parisian school of violin playing. De Bériot and Baillot were not thrilled with each other, however, and de Bériot quickly moved on to a career of his own. He moved from France back to Brussels and became violinist to King Charles X and King Wilhelm I of The Netherlands before the separation of Belgium and Holland. 

In 1842, de Bériot’s least favorite violin instructor died, and Baillot’s position at the Paris Conservatoire was offered to de Bériot. De Bériot turned it down, deciding instead to join the faculty of the Brussels Conservatory. This is where he founded the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing, which produced virtuoso-composers such as Vieuxtemps, Ernst and Wieniawski. De Bériot’s style of playing and composition combined the elegant, sensitive French style with the virtuosic, flashy fashion of Paganini. Among his many works, de Bériot’s ten violin concertos demonstrate most distinctly this new style, which he passed on to his students and his student’s students, helping create what we know today as the Romantic concerto style. 

These Concertant Duets demonstrate a wide variety of bow techniques with sparkling left-hand acrobatics. While they include some moments of pure flash, they are melodically oriented and more restrained than his successors, more like a well-choreographed French circus than an all-out wild romantic concerto.