In 2021, the King Baudouin Foundation was given the Arthur Grumiaux Fund as a donation from the Arthur Grumiaux Foundation. The Fund was subsequently entrusted to the Music Department of the Belgian Royal Library, where it has been inventoried, analysed and made accessible to the general public. Grumiaux’s correspondence represents a particularly rich source of information about his life and relationships, both personal and professional. His annotated musical scores and recordings similarly provide us with a new field of investigation for the study of interpretation.
The Arthur Grumiaux Fund
After the death of the violinist, the Arthur Grumiaux Fund was created by the Foundation bearing his name. The latter donated the Fund to the King Baudouin Foundation, which then entrusted this exceptional collection to the Music Department of the Belgian Royal Library. The Fund includes correspondence, handwritten and printed annotated musical scores, photographs, concert programmes, books and contracts, as well as sound archives. Grumiaux’s correspondence represents a particularly rich source of information about his life and relationships, both personal and professional. His annotated musical scores and recordings similarly provide us with a new field of investigation for the study of interpretation.
Arthur Grumiaux
Arthur Grumiaux (1921-1986) promoted the art of Belgian violin internationally, following in the wake of Henry Vieuxtemps and Eugène Ysaÿe. A child violin prodigy and professional at the age of 18, Arthur Grumiaux quickly developed an international career. Concerts and festivals followed one another throughout the world, where he performed both as a soloist and chamber musician. Grumiaux developed an extraordinary musical partnership with the Rumanian pianist Clara Haskil, with whom he made a recording of Mozart and Beethoven sonatas that would become references.
The study and promotion of the Arthur Grumiaux Fund
In 2021, the year that marked a hundred years since the birth of this world-renowned Belgian violinist, the King Baudouin Foundation entrusted the Arthur Grumiaux Fund to the Music Department of the Belgian Royal Library, where it was listed, inventoried and analysed, so as to make it known not only to musicians and musicologists, but also the general public. Further research into the Fund’s contents is also enabling the development of musical and musicological expertise relating to Arthur Grimiaux who, whilst being one of the 20th century’s emblematic violinists, had been the subject of little in-depth research until now.
